Circular Saw
by 13thsense
Summary: Sequel to ChainSaw; The game isn't over, it never was. Contains Skilene, death, blood and torture.
1. You Wanted More

**1 – You Wanted More**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Penguins of Madagascar nor the Saw franchise**

**Enjoy!**

Have you ever had the feeling that you did something so horrible, nothing could make it go away. The guilt and remorse would slowly eat away your sanity by stealing your sleep and thinking capacity. You would wish you could just end it all; slicing your wrists, taking some pills or perhaps even pulling the trigger of a gun in your mouth.

I'm sure Skipper felt the same at the moment as he burst through the door, with the exit sign above it, and rolled across the floor on the other side. He came to a stop lying on his back, staring at the ceiling. He was panting, desperately trying to formulate a plan, but he couldn't, all he could think about were the faces of his team mates, or former team mates, considering the fact that he might not be their leader anymore.

He continued watching the ceiling and realized that he wasn't outside yet. He slowly picked himself up. His body and mind, both clearly tired from all the, so called, tests he had just gone through. He glanced over to his right and saw the door he just came through. His team was still there, he wondered if he should go back and turn himself in.

Rotting in jail, not a very pleasant thought for someone like the active commando. Besides, he couldn't bear seeing her face again. Not her, "Marlene," he whispered to himself and a tear escaped his eye. He quickly wiped it off and glanced over to his left, where he saw another door. This one had a glass panel and he could see the evening sky.

He couldn't see any stars though, not with all the light pollution. He clenched his beak cursing at the humans in his head, but he quickly let it go. Skipper took last deep breath and then started waddling towards that exit. The way of the coward… simply walking out on everyone and everything while you are needed the most, but he couldn't help it… right?

After the second step, he noticed something on the left wall, a line of light. He hadn't noticed it before, because his back had been facing it. He approached it and pressed a flipper against it.

It wasn't a line; it was a crack in the wall. He moved his flipper down its entire length. 'Light, the symbol of hope, slim, just like my own chances for redemption,' he thought. He should get going, he shouldn't make his team see him and face the question what with their friend and leader. But perhaps this was a sign, the opportunity he wanted.

He brought his eye to the crack and peeked through. He was forced to narrow his eyelids at first, because he wasn't used to the brightness, but he could soon see again. On the other side of the crack was a room. It was a rather dusty old room. He couldn't make out the details, mostly because there weren't any.

He pulled his head back and took another look to the left, the door he came through, and then to his right, the way out. Perhaps, he didn't have to chose between turning himself in and running away, perhaps there was a third choice, a golden middle.

He brought one of his flippers closer to his eyes and examined it, "This might just fit," he said and inserted it into the crack. He did the same with the other flipper and slowly, but with all his strength, he began pulling the wall apart. He could've been wasting his energy and time, but he didn't want to take any of the current choices, he always wanted the one that wasn't listed, which, in this case, was catching the guy behind this entire operation and bringing him to justice.

The wall slowly budged, at first, he thought he was getting delusional from the exhaustion, but as the crack of light, and his hope, grew, he found new strength and created an opening wide enough for him to squeeze through. He pulled in his stomach and just barely managed to fit through the gap. On the other side he took a look at the wall, it was fitted on wheels, which would explain the fact that he could even move it.

This was something he had to do alone. Skipper had to clear his name without pulling his team further into this. He grabbed the wall and pushed it back to its original position, but without the crack to give this room away to his team. The wall must've weighed at least half a ton and when his body finally couldn't go on, he used sheer will power to get the job done. He simply wouldn't give to something as mere as uncooperative muscles.

The wheels let out a final metal screech before coming to a halt, indicating that he moved it as far as it could go. He made a few steps backwards still facing the wall, before turning around and finally getting a full view of the place.

Even with all his military experience, he couldn't help but feel uncomfortable in the room. It looked like a deranged version of Santa's workshop with rusty pipes sticking out the walls, instead of candy canes, various metal components, instead of wooden cubes an elf would put together to make a toy, and heavy duty tools, instead of simple hammers.

He waddled over to one of the tables and looked at the items lying on it. Screwdriver, a blowtorch, a reciprocating saw, an angle grinder… the item, which got his eyes to stop, was a blueprint. It was covered with nuts and bolts, which he pushed aside with his flippers.

Skipper wasn't an engineer, but it didn't take one to see what was on the picture. "Beautiful isn't it?" someone asked.

The captain spun around, but was shocked, to say the least. "Special agent Buck Rockgut?" he couldn't believe his eyes, his idol, the American-Penguin hero, the bird Skipper had modeled his entire life after.

It all made sense, the earpiece, the voice made a couple of slip ups, but in hindsight, there was no doubt about it, "It was you," he said, "You kidnapped everyone, you made me… kill them," he muttered the last part.

"Did I, or was it all you?" he asked with a smirk.

Skipper was shivering with rage; he was shooting the bird, across him, a glare that could've pierced through the fabric of space itself. He turned around and searched the table. He immediately found what he was looking for, a Stanley knife. He grabbed it and tackled Rockgut, who did nothing to avoid the attack.

The special agent went down with Skipper on top of him, holding the blade of the knife against his neck. "You were my idol, I worshipped you," he said and pressed the sharp metal harder against his black feathers. "Then I realized you were obsessed with the Red Squirrel, but now the truth is out, you're just mad."

The special agent chuckled, which made Skipper growl in response. "I wouldn't laugh if I were you right now," he threatened.

"Perhaps you would," he replied, "You have nowhere to go, your team would imprison you, your friends wouldn't want anything to do with you and your girl…"

Skipper took away the knife from Buck's neck and grabbed his feathers. He pulled him off the floor and slammed him down again, "Leave, her, out, of, this," he threatened.

"You're an outcast boy, you did what was right and the world turned its back on you. I'm offering you a chance to make people see the true values of life."

Skipper narrowed his eyelids, but said nothing.

"I needed someone, who had seen the evils of the world, but was forced over and over to uphold the law and do things by the book. There are individuals who have used the system, who avoided punishment, who played us all. Do you think it is fair to do such things and still walk freely? I had a revelation about a year ago, it happened in the Himalayas. It was there that I experienced my rebirth. Never again was I to look at life as I had before."

Skipper stood up and backed away from Rockgut.

The special agent picked himself up and continued, "I realized that everyone deserves a second chance, they can live the life they have created, but they have to fight for it." He made a few steps closer to the captain, "Will you help me in my noble quest, to separate to weed from the crop, to reveal those who have the will to live from those who take it all for granted?"

Skipper's flipper uncoiled, the knife fell and the moment it hit the ground, he fell on his knees, "I am… I will follow you."

**I hope you liked it so far. I couldn't just start killing everyone, I had to create a begging of some sort. **

**I have depleted the show of its character and I need victims or else this thing will have to be abandoned (that or it will be rather disappointing). I need villain OCs to put them to the test (if you want, I can leave it up to you, if they make it or not).**

**I'd like to thank hipturtle15, chatterbox45, Asmith137 and hardrocker21, who already offered their OC for me to use.**

**Review!**


	2. Psychological Scars

**2 – Psychological Scars**

**Thank you for the reviews. Thank you GoldenWheel for offering your character. Enjoy!**

**I don't own Dave, he belongs to hardrocker21, thank you for letting me use him *psychopathic giggle*.**

**6 months ago**

In a small hallway, a small crack of light was slowly getting narrower until it disappeared and darkness, once again, ruled over the room. Shortly after, a door on its left began opening. It had an annoying rusty screech to it. Through came three penguins and an otter. They all seemed to be mourning about something or someone.

The tallest and the second tallest penguin held their heads down and were looking at the floor, while the shortest one was tending to their mammal friend. She seemed to be in the worst state of them all. Her forelegs were crossed and she was shaking slightly, which made her look like she was cold. Her eyes had lost the cheerfulness they once radiated and her signature smile, which could warm up even the coldest heart, was nowhere in sight.

Private had his flipper wrapped around her shoulders, trying to offer her some comfort, but it was in vain. She was too far gone, the events that just took place caused some major damage. Not physical, but a far worse kind, mental. The body is an incredible machine, it will recover from almost any injury, but the mind is not always so resilient (adapted line from the "Deus Ex 3" trailer).

They all slowly trod across the short hall, not even bothering to look at their surroundings, and reached the second exit door. Rico and Kowalski pushed it open and they left. They were free, but at the cost of their leader.

**Present day**

Central park zoo, or more specifically, the penguins' HQ, Private was sitting on a cinderblock, behind their makeshift table, while Rico was just lying on the floor, staring at the ceiling, with his flippers crossed on his chest. There was deathly silence in the room, only broken by the occasional sigh from either one of them.

Even after all this time, the team was still feeling the aftermath of that day. The constant reminder was their headcount and the new arrivals. After they had returned it was a rather big deal. A large number of animals had disappeared and it was all the media could talk about. The new arrivals filled up the empty places, but it wasn't the same. New faces just made them all feel like strangers in their own home.

The metallic screech of the fishbowl, followed by a stream of light, from the hole in the ceiling, caught the attention of the two mourning penguins. Entering was, since he outranked them, their new leader, Kowalski. Smart as he was, he had been coping with their loss, best, but he still carried a rather sad expression. He waddled over to the table and took off his backpack. Private's eyes focused on the tall bird and Rico sat up from his lying position.

"How is she doing?" the shortest penguin asked.

Kowalski waited before answering and first let out a sigh, "She still won't talk," he began. "She just sits there on her bed, looking into the empty space while I'm around," he explained.

"Poor Marlene," the Private said, "I can't believe she's taking this so badly."

"She had no military training, the shock she experienced, was therefore that much worse. The state she's in is no surprise," Kowalski replied.

"Will she ever be the same?" the chubby bird asked, tears welling up in his eyes.

"That much I am certain of," Kowalski proclaimed. "She has already made some baby steps. I find empty plates whenever I visit her, which means she is eating her food. Also, she seems to have picked up painting again, but," the scientist's head dropped, "The paintings are all of Skipper."

Private sniffed and Rico looked down sighing. Silence once again filled the HQ, which the smallest bird ended, "What now?"

"Well, the park hasn't been patrolled in a few months, perhaps we should look into it," the genius bird suggested.

Rico shrugged and stood up. He waddled over to the ladder and exited. The remaining two penguins followed as well and they headed out. They passed the lemur habitat, home of the lemur king, who wasn't as noisy as he once was.

King Julien was lying in fetal position in his bouncy, his teeth were chattering and he had a shocked expression on his face. There was a set of earphones in his ears, connected to an MP3 player. Maurice walked by, with his usual bored look and picked up the king like a baby. He carried him over to his throne and sat him down.

The aye-aye stepped back and watched the ringtail, who, with a shaky paw, slowly removed the earphones. He took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. Maurice crossed his paws on his chest and waited a moment for the king. "How are you doing your majesty?" he asked.

Julien focused and was able to get rid of the chattering in order to speak normally, "It is being better," he replied and stretched out his shaking paw, "but I still have de shivers," he added.

"Well, you were locked in that room for over a day, forced to listen to polka music," Maurice shivered, "I can't even begin to imagine what that felt like."

"Oh Maurice it was horrible, but de techno seems to be doing de helping. I am to be feeling better," he said.

"It's great to hear that your majesty," the aye-aye replied and turned around to leave.

"Oh Maurice!"

He stopped and turned around, "Since you are already doing da standing, why don't you go and make me a mango smoothie. Just so you know, that was being an order, not a question."

Maurice let out a sigh and walked off. He acted annoyed, but he smiled. No matter how hard the work may be, he liked doing it. He liked being bossed around. Besides, king Julien is still ten times better than fetal Julien. That guy had to be taken care of 24/7. Not to mention the diaper duty he was forced to perform the week right after his king's return.

The gray lemur shivered at the memory, "One mango smoothie, coming right up," he said.

The penguins had, in the meantime, made it into the park. Nothing special seemed to be going on, so they just slid around for a while. They visited the pond, where Eggy was together with his mother and siblings, and the baseball stadium, but that was it. They stopped on top of a hill and sat down.

The three were all in the same pose, slouched, supporting their bottom beaks with their flippers which were resting on their knees. They were looking into the distance and their all too familiar snow cone vendor appeared in their field of vision.

Kowalski blinked, before saying, "Oh look… snow cones."

Private spoke with an equally uninterested voice, "I could really go for a cranberry cone right about now."

"Yup," grunted Rico.

But no matter what they said, wished or thought, none of them did anything, but watch as their favorite frozen treat disappeared from sight. They all just simultaneously sighed.

Six months and they couldn't get over the memories of their leader. No matter what he had done, he remained the hero he was in their eyes and that is how they wanted it. Can one moment really change the opinion you have of a person? Probably, but would you accept it just like that or would you give it your best to restore the image, even if it was a lie, you had before.

Several hours later, inside a closed hardware store, there was a single light turned on. There, in the middle of an isle, it was illuminating some sort of machine. There was definitely a table saw, which had a conveyer belt leading right to it. Above the belt, were several monkey bars, set approximately 5 inches apart. As you moved further away from the saw, up the conveyer belt, you could see some chains fastened to it.

There were six of them, three located on either sides of the belt and the other ends seemed to be fastened, via metal rings, to a furry creature, an otter. The rings ran through the following body parts: the hind paws, the hips and the sides of the chest. The fur around them was mildly colored, indicating that not much blood was lost while inserting the rings.

The otter let out a groan and instinctively moved his paws down the side of his body. There was an inexplicable pain there and when he felt the foreign body, his eyes shot open and he tried sitting up, but found that the attempt at doing, so caused him pain, not to mention, yielded no results.

He moved his front paws to where he found the foreign body before and felt it. Cold as it was, it had to be some sort of metal and as he reached further down its length, he knew there was a chain. That was the reason he couldn't get up, he was tied down. He smirked, it was nothing he couldn't get out of, he was sure. He just needed some time and a chunk of wood to bite into.

But before he began, there were some questions he had and amongst the obvious, like; who his kidnapper was and where he was, he wanted to know, why his front paws were free; wouldn't it be better to chain them up as well? He shrugged it off and decided to tend to the first ring, when a static interrupted him.

He looked up and saw a television suspended from the ceiling, right above him. A "Muppets style" puppet of a penguin appeared and slowly turned towards the camera. He watched un-amused by the performance. "Hello David Perkins, you don't know me, but I know you. I want play a game," the puppet spoke.

The otter narrowed his eyelids, this thing seemed awfully familiar, but he wasn't sure. "Wait, did he just call me by my full name?" he asked.

"I am aware of your past life and all your life accomplishments," the penguin continued and Dave's eyes widened. "You have served the human race and received material rewards for your deeds. You have shown your selflessness by saving your own sister from the father of her bastard child and even after your transformation, you continued helping anyone who needed it."

The otter's breathing picked up, he was getting angrier by the second.

"By now you must know that this is the life you will live out the rest of your days in. My question to you is, why haven't you abandoned your ties to your previous life yet. Why are you still wallowing in hopes of one day reuniting with your family, why can't you just accept what you have become?"

Dave realized it then, he knew why this seemed familiar, his heart skipper a beat and he muttered, "No fucking way…"

"The device, which you are fastened to, is my first ever creation. The chains represent your physical link to your previous life. To break free, and survive this challenge, you must also break free from your restraints or else you will remain divided between the two plains."

Dave lifted his head slightly and saw the glinting of the saw blade in the distance.

"Seeing as the adrenaline is preventing you from thinking clearly, let me give you a clue, the monkey bars will help you get a grip of your life. You have one minute before you reach, what might become, the last crossroad of your life. Good luck."

Dave looked up and saw the screen go black; he looked back at the table saw, just about four yards away, and saw it turn on. The noise mixed with the panic, he was in right now, were affecting his thinking capabilities. "Pull yourself together Perkins, THINK! You saw the movies, you know the mistakes the people do, just don't do them yourself," he said to himself.

The otter focused and looked up, the monkey bars were, one by one, slowly passing above him. He stretched out his paws and just barely managed to grab hold of one. He felt the strain on his paws increasing; he was slowly getting lifted off the conveyer belt as the tension on the chains grew.

Something was about to give way, the motor, powering the conveyer belt, the chain or the otter. Dave hear a cracking noise coming from his spine, he felt his skin and muscles as they stretched, nothing, of the aforementioned giving way. Unfortunately, one of his paws slipped and he fell back on the belt.

The first thing he did was mentally curse himself, he did the first mistake, which was not looking at the trap from all possible angles. "Monkey bars my foot," he said and brought both his paws to his right side. He tried pulling apart the ring, which would most likely have been an easy task, while he was human, but he overestimated his otter power.

He realized that himself and looked back and forward between the approaching saw blade and the chain. He grabbed the chain firmly with his right paw and bit into his left forearm. He closed his eyes and gave it a single powerful jerk.

The ring tore through the skin it was held in place by and left a small wound. Dave forced back a tear which tried to escape his eye and turned to his other side, when he realized something, he didn't have to get out of all the chains just enough to avoid the blade.

He reached for the ring at his right hip. It looked almost as if his foreleg had stretched to achieve his goal, but he didn't care, he was three-quarters down the runway and he was running out of time. He did it like before and tore off that chain as well.

"One more to go," he said, but his blood froze realizing the flaw in his plan. The ring was run between his bones , which meant jerks to either side weren't going to get it out, only one towards his own body would, but in his current position he couldn't manage such a movement.

He looked up, there were seconds to spare, 'Move the paw, use the chain to stop the blade he thought,' but after taking a look at the right paw chain again, he saw it was too short for the task. He moved to his left, getting as much of his body out of the way as possible. His right hind leg was stretched across the width of the conveyer. It was a necessary sacrifice, but a fair trade for his life… right?

**Hope you liked it, because there's a lot more where that came from**

**It's never too late to lend me an OC, you want to see suffering**

**Review!**


	3. Back in Black and White

**3 – Back in Black and White**

**Thanks for the reviews people! Karenkook, you're welcome to send in anyone you want to see suffer. Also, I WILL try using all the OCs, but I have to find good spots for them. Don't get upset and or mad, just because they haven't appeared at the begging. Adr62395ian has deserted me right when I needed her… OC. Does anybody, besides Asmith137, own a wolf?**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Dave, he belongs to hardrocker21, thanks for letting me use him!**

**Enjoy!**

The next morning at the penguin HQ, two of the birds were lying in the bunks, while the third one, their new leader Kowalski, was in his lab. He wasn't building anything, he was just looking at some of his old inventions.

The shrink ray, the stop watch, the salt shaker filled with nanites… all the memories rushed back to his mind. The problems those things caused and the team's efforts to stop them. He remembered how well organized Skipper always was. That penguin could handle anything life threw at him. A smile appeared on the scientist's face. He waddled over to his desk and looked at a framed photo of, what used to be, the greatest quartet of Antarctic flightless avians Manhattan had ever known.

He picked up the picture and just stared at it for a few minutes. "You left the team too soon… we both know you weren't planning on giving this position to me, but I just had to step in, he's only a kid after all," he said to the photo.

He let out a sigh and put down the picture again. His sad expression was replaced by a serious one. He looked up, "Enough of this senseless depression, it's time to get back on the trans-dimensional rocket sitting aid and do what we do best."

The tall bird marched out of his quarters and shut the door with a lot of force. The bang it made startled the two sleeping penguins out of their slumber, Rico even fell onto the ground. They looked at what caused the noise and saw Kowalski and his serious expression. "Line up men!" he ordered.

Rico and Private exchanged looks and smiled. The moping was finally over. No more crying over spilt milk, no more mourning for the avian that…

"DID I STUTER?" he asked again with an increased volume.

The two lying penguins stood up and saluted, "NO SIR!" they answered simultaneously.

"Good!" Kowalski replied and began pacing back and forth in front of the two, with his flippers behind his back. "Now as you might know, the last half a year has been wasted over nothing. I intend to change that and make up for lost time," he stopped and turned towards them. "Is that clear?"

"Yes sir!" the two replied.

"I can't hear you!"

"YES SIR!" Private yelled at the top of his lungs since the most Rico could come up with was just an ever louder grunt.

"Good!" he walked over to the television and turned it on, "Now let's see what troubles the city has for us to solve.

He switched between some channels until he found the morning news. Taking up most of the screen was New York's favorite news reporter, doing what he does best, stating the obvious.

"This is Chuck Charles reporting to you live from Feldman's Housewares incorporated, where the manager had reported a break in just an hour ago. When he arrived at the store this morning, he found the lock of the backdoor broken. The manager immediately called the police and upon their arrival they found this gruesome scene," the image switches to a video footage of the interior of the store. They were mostly focused on the torture machine located in the middle of the aisles.

"Upon finding blood the two policemen feared the worse, but those fears were lifted when they found this furry little creature," the scene switches to a different footage, this time, of an otter missing one of its hind legs, lying in a small puddle of his own blood. The poor little animal was shaking, but at least that meant it was still alive.

"Have no fear people, the little guy is going to be just fine, thanks to the heroic efforts of one of the officers who wasted no time and ran as fast as he could to the nearest vet, where the little guy's life was saved," Chuck Charles reported.

Next came an interview with the policeman, "It was nothing really, I'm sure any animal lover would've done the same. I just…"

Kowalski turned to the remaining birds with a confident smirk on his face, "It would seem we have an attempted murder at our hands, wouldn't you agree?" he asked.

"Uh-huh," nodded Rico.

"Oh dear, that poor otter. Who could do something like to an animal?"

"That's what were a going to find out. Now," he scratched his bottom beak, "If only we knew where that otter was staying so that we could question him."

"The otter will be staying at Carnegie Hill Veterinarians until it recovers and the Central Park Zoo has already volunteered to take the little guy in. The injuries he sustained may be the sad results of animal cruelty. The manager has already been arrested and will be questioned back at the police station. Back to you Bonnie."

"Oh goodie," Cheered Private, "He's coming here, that means we don't have to search for him."

"As Skipper would say, NO DICE! We haven't got a moment to lose. We have to ask that mammal some questions before the perpetrator gets away with what he's done."

"Wow Kowalski, you really sounded like Skipper," commented Private, "Can you do Rico next?"

The genius bird threw him a stern look.

"Oh, right, no time. What are your orders sir?" the little bird asked.

Kowalski smiled, things were looking good for them. They were an elite team of penguins once again.

Meanwhile, in the little workshop of horror, an all too familiar flat-headed penguin was looking at a video footage over and over again. It showed an otter grabbing hold of a bar for a few seconds before letting go. The penguin had his flippers crossed over his chest, when the tape was stopped. "Why didn't you follow my orders? Why did you go and do things on your own?" he asked the television.

"It was your first trap, let it go already. Things can't always go the way you want them to," said a rockhopper penguin, which came from behind him.

Skipper sighed, "It's not that, I'm begging to doubt if this one was even guilty of anything. What if we made a mistake?"

Rockgut chuckled, "He was a human, kiddo, and they're weak to begin with. They lack the basic survival instinct. They'd rather die than fight for that which they take for granted."

"I know, but he proved he has the will, so why'd he still have to lose his leg?" Skipper asked.

"He fought for his life and he won. The scars will be reminders of his rebirth."

"Rebirth?"

"Let that be a lesson for a different day. Now tell me, have you picked your next victim?" the special agent asked.

Skipper waddled over to a table with some folders on it. He picked up a stack and quickly looked them over, before throwing them all into the trash can. "I don't want to test any of these animals. One time wrongdoings don't seem that severe, when there's a world unworthy to call themselves alive," he said.

An evil glint appeared in Rockgut's eyes, "And what are you going to do about it?"

The flat headed bird scanned the table, looking for something specific and found it. It was a single photo, no folder, no info, just a picture.

Buck stepped closer and peered over Skipper's shoulder. "I don't think cross-dressing is a good reason to test anyone," he said.

Skipper gave him a weird look, "What do you mean?"

"Isn't that the lemur king I captured a few months ago?" he asked.

"What? No! What the heck? This isn't Julien, it's a girl," Skipper replied.

"Oh, sorry about that, so why do YOU think she's a good candidate?"

Skipper smirked, "I still need to do some investigating, but let's just say *his stomach growled* I've got a gut feeling about her."

Meanwhile, racing through the streets of the Big Apple, in a pink car, were three penguins. They made a final left turn and stopped in front of the veterinary office. "We're here," said Kowalski before they jumped out of their vehicle and sneaked over to the wall of the building.

"How do we get inside?" Private asked.

"We left the jetpacks and biplanes back at the zoo so an aerial attack is out of the question and with this place being more or less landlocked, our submarine would be useless as well. There is a vast system of severs right underneath us, which we could use, but with all the medical waste, I wouldn't want to test the practical application of my probability calculation skills right about now."

"Which leaves us with," he looked at the main entrance, "the front door."

They slid right to it and pushed it open. Once inside, they quickly hid behind a potted plant on their left to avoid detection, but after they peered from behind it, they saw that the waiting room was empty, with the exception of a girl in her late teens, listening to music, via headphones, while painting her nails.

"The human appears to be distracted with the ornamenting of her own keratin. Follow me," Kowalski motioned to his team mates and they slid over to the door leading out of the waiting area. They pushed this one open as well and entered a hallway.

"After an operation, an animal is usually kept under observation. Keep your eyes open for any doors that might-"

"Found it!" said Private pointing at a room.

"Good job soldier," praised the genius bird and they entered the quarantine room. There were no humans inside, just different animals, with differently placed bandages, in different cages.

Private was saddened at the sight of all these poor creatures. He wanted to help them, but it was the vet, they were already taken care of.

Rico spotted their target and began squawking like crazy. The others saw what he was pointing at and they jumped onto the desk, where the cage, holding the otter, stood.

The otter laid there in his cage, his rising bandaged chest, being the only indicator, to him being alive. Kowalski slowly approached him and saw that he was curled up, "Excuse, but could we perhaps talk to you?"

The otter gave no response.

"I understand you went through some rather traumatizing events in the last 24 hours and I would like to ask you some questions about that," the scientist tried again, but his question fell on deaf ears. He looked back at the rest of the team with a "What now?" look.

Private stepped forward, "Could you please tell us how you lost your foot?"

The otter's chest stopped rising and the birds became slightly concerned, until he spoke, "You know, I actually still feel my foot… I know it's not there anymore, but… it still hurts… it just does."

"Could you tell us what happened?" Private tried again.

**Flashback containing the rest of the trap (Dave's POV)**

...The distance between my foot and the saw closed in, what seemed like, an instant. I clenched my teeth to the point where I heard a crack in my mouth. I felt the vibrations travelling through my entire body once the blade was finished my flesh and started grinding through my bone. Once there… the pain just became unreal.

The bone showed some resistance towards the cold steel, but it only resulted in the calcium infused organ being crushed instead of sawn. I begged, I prayed, I cursed, I tried anything for it to finally just be over. And when I came back to my senses, I found myself hanging from the side of the machine.

My senses had become so numb, i couldn't hear, my vision was blurry and I couldn't feel. The first sensation I experienced was the smell of iron. I looked around, hoping it was because of the machine, but it wasn't… it was me, my own blood dripping from the spot my foot used to be. I had to take care of that or else I would die.

I tried reaching for the limb and found out that I couldn't, I was floating in the air. I closed my eyes and shot them open again and again until my eyelids became too tired to do it. I hoped it was all just a dream NO! A nightmare. First my sister, then this transformation and lastly, this… it was all just so damn unreal… I can't remember the last time I cried like this.

I wanted to take a last look at my surroundings. If this was really supposed to be my coffin, I wanted to make sure I really did all I could to survive. That's when I saw them, the chains, they were still imbedded in my body. They were the reason I was hanging like this. Those accursed constructs, why couldn't they just let me go?

I felt my eyelids getting heavy, my body was tired and it needed rest. I could feel myself drifting away. That's when I decided, I didn't want to die, not here and not now.

I swung my paw, grabbed the nearest chain and just ripped it out. I didn't care about anything else, I just wanted to get out of there. My body swung around for a while afterwards before coming to a stop. I stretched out my paw, trying to get the next chain, but my efforts were futile. My body wouldn't listen, it had already given up and was trying to make my mind do the same.

I knew I would've died the second I stopped fighting so I ignored the reaper's calls and gathered the final traces of energy. In a flash, the next chain was ripped out and only one more remained, the one, which cost me a limb on our last encounter. I felt my blood boiling at the thought of it resting in my flesh.

I braced my stub against a part of the machine and pulled my leg free. A quick falling sensation overcame me followed by my body's impact against the cold floor.

**End of Flashback (Normal POV)**

Private had left the group, he couldn't bare listening to the story anymore. The other birds weren't much better off themselves. Just the thought of what this guy went through made their hearts skip a beat.

The otter turned onto his back grinning, "I can still see that thing in my head. I don't want to fall asleep, because I don't know if it'll haunt my nightmares. I'm afraid; what if I won't be able to wake up again?"

"Would you mind telling us whom you were referring to when you said "that thing"?" Kowalski asked.

"A puppet… a fucking penguin puppet."

It hit Kowalski like the apple hit Newton. Six months ago, right after Skipper had reached them, on the television, could he be talking about that very same puppet, whose owner took the entire team of penguins captive.

"Thank you," he said to the otter and began walking away.

In the little workshop of horror, Skipper was scavenging through a pile of scrap. He found a car battery and threw it on a pile. Buck heard the noise and waddled over to him, "What are you planning to do?"

Skipper found another car battery and threw it as well, "I've decided to enter the profession of fashion designing. I'm going to make our little diva an outfit, she'll think is just to die for."

**What Dave was experiencing at first was supposed to be the phantom limb pain. I don't know if I got it right though. Skipper as a seamstress, can you imagine that? Bet you don't know who's next, unless you're the person, who gave me the OC, then you DO know.**

**Hope you liked it and review! **


	4. Pb

**4 – Pb**

**It's the chemical symbol for lead… you'll understand once you get about halfway through the story. This entire week I've been walking around in sleeveless shirts, because it was about 283 Kelvin. Imagine my surprise when I woke up yesterday and saw everything cowered in snow. I said to myself, "Damn, how much did I drink last night? I must still be dreaming," so I went back to bed. Anyway, sorry for the apparent cliffhanger, sorry for making you wait, but there was no way I could've finished this thing yesterday (grandmother's 70****th**** birthday) so sit back now and enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: Katy Lynch belongs to chatterbox45, thanks for letting me her**

A dark shape is scaling the side of a skyscraper. If you take a closer look at its silhouette you can make out a beak, a rather flat head and some sort of cloak it was wearing. Aiding him in his feat was only a rope secured to the top of the building.

His target was, of course, the penthouse, the home of one of the wealthiest New Yorkers. But it wasn't the home owner he wanted to see, but someone else, his pet. With that goal in mind he fearlessly braved on.

He looked up and saw the edge just a few feet away. He smirked in his confidence and pulled a couple more times. He grabbed the ledge with one of his flippers and pulled himself over it. "Nothing like a little adrenaline to get your heart pumping," he said to himself and stepped forward into the light. It was Skipper the penguin.

He was currently on the balcony and the light was coming from the inside, shining through the glass door. He waddled closer and peered inside. There were numerous paintings and statues around the place, no doubt to show off the owner's wealth. He couldn't care less about those things, a kindergartner could draw a better picture. He scanned the place for his target.

He saw a large shadow coming from one of the rooms and he quickly moved away from the glass to avoid detection. With his back pressed against the wall he peeked over his shoulder inside and saw the shadow getting smaller and smaller until a lemur walked through the door. It, or rather she, had a towel wrapped around her body and was currently humming something to herself.

The mammal walked across the apartment and once her back was turned to the penguin, it was time to act; Skipper pushed the sliding door open, quickly entered and closed it again. He jumped behind the couch to hide. "Is someone there?" asked the female's voice, but Skipper obviously didn't answer.

The lemur took a quick look around, but saw no one. She shrugged it off and walked through another door, unaware that she was being followed. Skipper slid after her and peered inside.

The furniture was small and it all seemed as if it were custom made for the female lemur. There was a bed, several wardrobes, chests and trunks, most likely containing clothes and jewelry.

Skipper didn't pay much attention to the details of the room though, he was focused on her. He searched a pocket on his cloak and pulled out a small needle syringe. He still disliked that pointy piece of steel, but he didn't mind since it wasn't meant for him. He pulled the hood over his head and removed the safety cap from the needle.

The cloaked penguin slowly waddled into the room, making sure not to make a noise. The lemur was standing in front of an open trunk and was facing him with her back. She had no idea what was about to come to her. Skipper was focused, but like all males, that concentration can be easily broken.

The girl dropped her towel and Skipper froze at the sight of the nude mammal. His heart started pounding and he got really nervous. Next, the lemur bent over, searching through her chest, while waving her tail around.

Strong as he was, Skipper couldn't help but be aroused at the display, but there was already someone else in his life, and he managed to shake himself out of the daze. He continued waddling closer and closer to the lemur, who already managed to find a nice purple tank top and some black shorts, which she quickly got on. She closed the trunk and turned around to see the cloaked figure.

The lemur let out a girlish shriek, but Skipper cut her off by closing her mouth with his free flipper. He pressed her back against the wall and watched her. Skipper saw the panic her eyes were radiating. He decided to end it quickly and stuck the needle into her neck. Once the syringe was empty, everything went black for the light gray lemur.

The first thing she noticed, as she was slowly regaining her consciousness, was that she was incredibly thirsty. "Somebody get me some water," she muttered still half asleep. She continued lying there for a few more minutes before the encounter in her room crossed her mind. Her eyes shot open and she jumped up.

Her heart was racing and she frantically began looking where she was. The room was small, dark, cold and unfamiliar. _"Hello Katy Lynch. I want to play a game."_

Her heart skipped a beat, when she heard her name being called. It was a deep emotionless voice, which gave her shivers. She tried finding out, where it was coming from, but the echo made it impossible.

"_Raised by a human, since the age of two (months), you've had everything handed to you. Your owner got you things some animals could only dream about, but what were your responses to these gifts? Did you ever show any sign of gratitude? You have no values and no humility, but that's all about to change. I will make sure you appreciate the life you have."_

"Is this supposed to be some kind of joke? Where are you, you sick pervert? SHOW YOURSELF!" Katy demanded, but the voice continued undisturbed by the lemurs screaming.

A light turned on and revealed a door with a gray cloak next to it. She walked over to the cloak and touched it. She immediately knew it wasn't fabric, but some sort of metal.

"_The door before you leads into an approximately 30 foot long hall with the exit located on the other side. All you have to do to escape is reach it alive, but you might find the journey itself to be a bit of a health hazard. I have installed several tomographs along the length of the corridor. They will generate x-rays, which will destroy your body beyond recovery. Your only hope of survival hangs right next to the door."_

The lemur looked at the cloak again and tried taking it off the wall, but the thing seemed to weigh a ton.

"_It is made of lead and will protect you from the harmful effects of the radiation. Will you push your body to its physical limits, or show the world just how empty you really are on the inside. The choice is yours, live or die, good luck!"_

The voice went silent and she heard a click from the door. "Is this for real? Am I really in danger?" she asked. The lemur turned back to the cloak and looked it over, "If this is a trick to get me into wearing brand-less clothing I'm killing somebody."

She grabbed the cloak and put all her strength into getting it off the wall. The 30 kilo attire fell on her and knocked the wind out of her lungs. She wiggled around, trying to get from underneath it, and barely managed to do so. "Oh you do NOT really think I'm wearing that," she scoffed and walked to the door with her head held high. She pushed it open and entered the hallway.

Katy noticed flashes coming from her left and right, but only smirked in response. She did some modeling poses instead of recalling what was told to her. She continued her walk, from this point on, like a fashion model on the runway, trying to taunt the "pervert", as she called him, who captured her.

With a wide smile she got about halfway across the hall when the nausea hit her. She grabbed her snout, thinking she might throw up, but forced the contents of her stomach back down. "That was disgusting," she said to herself. She looked back up and saw the door, which was supposed to lead her out. The mammal took a step forward, but she didn't quite seem in control of her own body. She stumbled to her right, trying to catch her balance, but failed and fell onto her knees.

She supported her body with her forelegs to keep herself off the floor. She stared at the cold concrete as it spun in front of her eyes, even though she was sure it was still. That dinner made another attempt to escape but she just shut her eyes and forced it down again. As she gasped for air she could taste the acidic flavor of fruit, as it was escaping into her mouth.

Smell and taste seemed to be the only two senses working right now, the others were playing tricks on her mind.

She tried standing up, but her body wouldn't listen, she couldn't get the message through to her limbs. She tried again, but it became impossible to even think once the headache hit her. She clutched her head and pressed it against the floor. The relentless throbbing made her want to cut herself just to move the pain hotspot from her head.

She took a last look up, no closer to the exit than she was before. "What's going *pant* on with me?" she managed to ask when a familiar feeling returned. This time, however, she was too late to intervene. A green puddle of half-digested fruit spilled onto the floor. The rotten stench it was emitting almost got her to throw up again, but thankfully her stomach was empty.

Everything started rocking back and forth and she collapsed onto her side, just barely avoiding her own stomach juiced, while the flashes were still sparkling in her eyes before her lids closed.

Watching the show on some computer screens were two penguins. They both stood in the exact same pose; the back straight, with their flippers crossed over their chests and looking with serious expressions. "Any comments?" the Rockhopper asked.

The second penguin stayed silent.

"Is something wrong soldier?"

Skipper shook his head, "The animals aren't taking this serious. It took me ten hours to get all that lead out of the batteries, melt and cast it, to even create the "Heavy Metal Suit" and she just goes and spits on my work."

"Anger is just an emotion, you must control them. Anger leads to affects and affects make you do things in blind rage."

"Sorry… I think I'm done for the day," said Skipper walking away.

"What about the girl?" asked Rockgut.

"With the amount of radiation she's been exposed to she'll die sometime in the next two days. Until then, she still has time to get herself out," replied Skipper and left the room.

Rockgut turned back to the screens smiling, "Well, since she's dying anyway," he turned a knob on the control panel, "There's no harm in turning things up a notch."

Back with the Central park penguins, Kowalski had silently waddled straight back to their vehicle. Private and Rico had a hard time following their taller friend and they were rather confused since he didn't say a word.

The genius bird reached the car and took the driver's seat. He waited for the others to climb in as well and then they drove off. The drive was silent, giving the impression that Kowalski was mad at someone or something, but that wasn't the case. He was actually concerned for the mental health of his team mates. He was aware that his thinking capabilities were superior to those of the rest of rookery, but he wasn't sure if the either Rico or Private managed to piece everything together the way he did.

'Do they know the incidents half a year ago and the one from last night might have been caused by the same guy? Should I investigate the matter further?' he asked himself. It was a horrible dilemma he was in; he just managed to get his team out of the depression they had been lying in for the last few months just to push them back. 'I doubt they could take it,' he thought and made a sharp left turn, pressing both Rico and Private against the right side of the vehicle.

In fear of the possibility that their leader might snap at them, they stayed silent.

'This mission seemed like the new begging the team and I needed… why can't the past just stay, where it was, in the fourth dimension,' he asked himself.

"Kowalski… Kowalski… Kowalski?"

The scientist turned around to see Private trying to get his attention.

"What is it?"

"Err, could it be that we did something wrong?" the chubby bird asked, "Is that the reason you're so angry?"

The scientist drove left into a side alley and stopped. "I'm not angry, well I might appear angry, but I am currently not experiencing that emotion," he reassured.

"Then what is it?" Private asked again.

The scientist still wasn't sure if he should tell them the truth, but Skipper was always honest with them and he should act as a role model for the youth.

He let out a sigh before answering, "I fear we might be dealing with the same perpetrator here as the one six months ago." It didn't take the other two penguins long to figure out what their leader was referring to.

"I would completely understand the two of you if you would want to abandon this case, considering the state the last one had-"

"WHAT THE BULLOCKS DO YOU THINK YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT!"

The scientist flinched at the yell. He slowly turned around and saw how angry Private was. The kid was shooting him a glare that was making him shake in fear.

"This guy is NOT getting away with what he's done to Skipper! We're chasing him down no matter what!" the Private demanded.

"It might just be a copycat," Kowalski suggested.

"THEN WE CHASE DOWN THE COPYCAT!" Private proclaimed and sat back down in his seat. "Kowalski, options!"

The scientist smiled and pulled out his clipboard. He went through some pages and then showed some poorly drawn sketches, "May I suggest we go to the hardware store and investigate the crime scene ourselves. We are bound to find more clues there," he suggested.

"Excellent idea Kowalski, take us to there," ordered Private.

The scientist put the vehicle in reverse, backed up and bumped into a fire hydrant on the sidewalk.

"On second thought, why don't you let Rico drive."

**I know what your thoughts were back in the apartment, but I just thought it would be funny. I'm aware that animals walk around naked all the time.**

**Seeing your reviews, I don't think this trap lived up to your expectations. But I think it was a suitable punishment for a spoiled diva. Hope you liked it and review!**


	5. Perplexity

**5 – Perplexity**

**Cudabear: **Yeah, I know the trap was inescapable, considering the fact that an average lemur weighs around 2kilos, but it's not like there weren't any inescapable traps in the movies. Also, thank you for noticing that I changed my focus in this story.

**Asmith137: **Thank you for the Latin lesson, but I kinda don't need one. I originally planned on naming the chapter "Plumbum", but changed it, because I wanted to use it as nerd joke in a different story. Don't worry, I'll think of something else.

**Thanks for the reviews and enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: Katy Lynch belongs to chatterbox45, thanks for letting me her**

Rockgut sat in a large chair watching the show as a female lemur began seizing up until her body went limp. He let out a sigh, "That one wasn't even worthy to be called entertainment. I mean seriously, what was that girl thinking, exposing herself to something as lethal as radiation."

The special agent let out another sigh and waddled over to a workbench. He had a blueprint hanging in front of him and he brushed his flipper across the paper. "You will be my greatest challenge yet," he said while observing the schematic.

He stayed still for several minutes, allowing his masterpiece to really imprint itself in his mind. The dimensions were perfect, the lines flawless and the concept brilliant. A wicked grin formed on his face and he grabbed some steel pipes and his blowtorch. A blueprint is useless while it remains on paper. Only after bringing it into the 3rd dimension does it begin showing itself in its full glory.

Elsewhere, inside a hardware store, which had been closed for the day by the police, three penguins were conducting an investigation of some sort. "I want every square inch of this place dusted and photographed, understood?" Private ordered.

"Yes sir!" Rico and Kowalski both replied.

The police didn't put much effort in searching the scene. They already had their theories about what went down at the store, not to mention that the victim was just an animal. They thought investigating the matter further would just be a waste of resources and manpower.

The smallest bird went to the security office in search of some videotapes from the surveillance cameras, but he didn't find any. They had all been taken by the police, or so he thought. It was quite disappointing, but the humans were just doing their jobs.

Rico began squawking and jumping on the spot. He got the attention of his team mates, who rushed to his side. "What is it Rico, what did you find?" Kowalski asked.

The maniac pointed at a spot on the machine, which wasn't completely covered in white powder. It was a small triangular fleck, which didn't seem like much, but, "A partial flipper print," Private said, "Good job Rico."

"Waz nothin'."

"You think it belongs to our perpetrator?"

"I am certain of it, Private. It has to belong to whoever built this contraption."

"Can you figure out who the owner of the print is?"

"Of course I can. Once fully matured, the feathers of an avian always grow in a specific pattern, which is unique to every bird. I'll just let the computer compare it to the database and, provided the print is in it, we'll have our match in a few hours," Kowalski said.

"Excellent, so we've got the photos and we dusted this… thing, are we done?"

"Not quite," replied the scientist, "We still have to take the contraption apart and search the insides. The criminals are usually more careless in the first stages of a build so there might be some clues there."

Rico regurgitated an angle grinder and, with a deranged laughter, charged at the machine.

"NO RICO DON'T" Kowalski screamed and jumped between his team mate and the steel he was aiming at. "We can't just cut it open like some mad butcher, this requires surgical, or should I say mechanical, due to this being a machine, precision."

The maniac grumbled something and re-swallowed the cutting tool. He regurgitated some wrenches instead and handed them out. The trio went to work, removing nut after nut and laying the individual pieces out. They soon found themselves standing in front of machine parts, which hadn't seen the light of day since they left the factory.

"Well this was a waste of time," Private declared. "Let's head back to the zoo," he ordered and slid off, immediately followed by Rico.

Kowalski stayed behind thinking, "Come now, you had to build something yourself, you can't just buy a machine like this," he said to himself while scanning the parts over and over again. He waddled over to where the conveyer belt was laid out and observed it.

"The table saw was definitely bought, but this thing, you made yourself," his eyes stopped on a sprocket and he bowed down to see it better. Stuck between the teeth of the gear was a small lump of black lubricating oil. It could have been nothing but he had a feeling that it was important for some reason.

There was no logical explanation behind his feeling. 'Maybe this is what Skipper means when he's… was referring to his lower digestive track,' the scientist thought. He pulled out a pair of forceps and an empty test tube. He carefully removed the black lump and put it into the tube, which he closed afterwards.

"Kowalski, are you coming already?"

The scientist was startled at the sound of his younger team mate. He sealed the tube and swallowed it. Once it reached his stomach he gasped for air. "Yes, of course I am," he replied, turned around and slid towards the exit.

Skipper waddled down a hallway with his head aimed at the ground. There were certain events on his mind, recent events.

He reached a door at the end of the hall and pushed it open. He flipped a switch on his right, which turned on the lights.

It was a small room equipped with a desk, covered in various blueprints, folders and different drawing tools, an office chair and a bed. This room had been given to him by Rockgut, but he spent little time in it, mostly sleeping, when he wasn't in the middle of some project.

Skipper waddled over to the desk and sat down. He glanced at the folders, each with the picture of an animal on the cover. Everyone destined to be tested and fight for their life. Who was he to dub someone "unworthy" of his own life? What justified his actions?

He grabbed a folder and looked at the cover; there was a picture of a meerkat. He observed it for a few seconds and smirked."Looks like you missed a few, special agent," he said and experienced an unpleasant grumbling in his stomach. He grabbed his abdomen, clenched his beak and shut his eyes. All he could was endure the pain, which tortured him for a whole minute.

Once it was over, he was gasping for air. "It's true that I haven't been eating much, but why are you acting up like this?" he asked his gut, but was answered with silence. Ever since the events of that day he felt like there was a lead brick in his stomach that just wouldn't go away. He tried changing his diet, taking various pills, exercising, but nothing worked. Starvation at least temporarily changed the feeling to hunger instead of this anguish, but it wasn't healthy keeping it up for too long.

He stood up from his desk and lied down on the bed, where he just stared at the ceiling. He did his best to keep certain things at bay, not thinking about them, but sometimes, fractions of memories escaped and played off in front of his eyes.

**Flashback**

Skipper stood in front of a table holding a scalpel. He couldn't recall the last time he had been so nervous. The knife wielding flipper was shaking and drops of sweat were running down his forehead.

Special agent Buck Rockgut stood next to him, with a stern look, "You gotta know your mammals, kid and I think this is better than any book," he said.

Skipper looked down and watched the rat in front of him. The poor rodent was still alive, but couldn't move, because it was nailed to a board, through the paws. The penguin's breathing picked up as he began lowering the blade.

The metal glistened in the rat's eyes. He had abandoned wiggling around, because it caused nothing but pain. His body began trembling as he felt death's icy chill grazing his body.

The flipper continued shaking until it pressed its flesh-cutting edge against the rat's fur.

Skipper's eyes locked with those of his victim, they stared at each other for what felt like hours.

"DO IT!" yelled the rockhopper.

The thing he did next, Skipper still regrets today.

He pressed the blade down even harder and pulled it towards him. The abdominal cavity revealed its contents to the penguin, a sight that forces many to empty their own stomach contents.

But he ignored the display of organs, because he was still looking at the rat's eyes. The rodent didn't scream when the cut was made, he just froze until finally "falling asleep".

**End of flashback**

Skipper felt a sense of tightness around his heart, "Why didn't I look away? Why didn't I shut my eyes?" he asked himself. He saw the light of that rat go out that day and it was entirely on his shoulder.

The anxiety grew and he clutched his chest feathers.

His eyes widened as his body began seizing.

He let out grunts in pain at each beat of his heart.

It was too much evil for him to bear. He needed to do something… something that would calm him down. He struggled to get himself up, but couldn't, so he just rolled out of bed. He hit the floor hard, but didn't stay lying. He stood up, supporting his body against the wall, and limped out of his room, heading somewhere.

At the zoo, inside a cave, an otter was pulling a paintbrush across a canvas. Her eyes were locked, concentrating on one point, as if she knew exactly where the paintbrush was located at all time. Her heartwarming smile had faded long ago and was replaced by a frown that could make it rain. The purity of her hazel eyes had been tainted by the crimson of her capillary. There were lines of salt in her fur from all the tears she had shed until this day.

Marlene dipped her paintbrush in black paint one last time and was finished. She made a few steps back and took in the painting as a whole.

It portrayed Skipper with the look he was giving her after the chlorine accident. She liked the attention she got that day, until things got out of hands. But thinking about what measures Skipper would have gone through just to get her back, filled her with joy.

But in her current state, attention was the one thing she hated more than anything else. She just wanted to be alone.

Her eyes began tearing up and she broke out crying. She couldn't help herself. Marlene ran to her bed and buried her face in her pillow. She let it all out, crying, like she had been doing every night for six months.

The scene backed up, revealing it to be footage, on a computer monitor, Skipper was watching. A tear formed at the edge of his eyes. The pain in his chest was gone, thanks to the otter, but it was only replaced by guilt, sorrow and regret. "I'm sorry," he whispered, knowing his words wouldn't be heard.

"I know how you feel."

Skipper turned around and saw Rockgut standing at the entrance.

"My own obsession with the Red squirrel drove off those I loved as well. I didn't even realize it until it was too late. I denied my sadness for so long it eventually faded… but it left a hole in my heart I filled with revenge. I can't even remember, what she looked like anymore, just the last look I caught when she slammed the door," he said, looking at the ground smirking.

"I want to let her know I'm still alive. I can't let her torture herself like this any further," Skipper said.

"And what are you going to tell her when she asks about your whereabouts?"

Skipper looked away in frustration.

"You can always bring her in and test her," the rockhopper suggested.

In blind rage, the captain charged at the special agent and pressed him against the wall. "Leave her out of this!" he screamed and pressed his flipper harder against his throat.

Rockgut let out a muffled chuckled and spoke with a raspy voice, "Still haven't gotten a grip on your emotions I see. You'll need to take care of that."

Skipper pressed harder, "You're NOT kidnapping her, UNDERSTOOD?" he asked and let go after a few more seconds. The rockhopper grabbed his throat and gasped for air.

He left the monitor room and headed back to the workshop; he had plans.

**I finally forced myself into writing this. Sorry if you were expecting blood and gore, but I screwed up in the previous chapter and couldn't fit anything in. At least you got some Skilene and I promise there will be more.**

**Tomorrow's Christmas… I guess I should at least wish you a merry Christmas since I probably won't have time to write anything tomorrow. Alright, here it goes: "Merry Christmas!" And with that I am referring to the original uncommercialized version of the holiday.**

**Hope you liked it and review!**


	6. Down the Throat

**6 – Down the Throat**

**To be honest, I didn't actually think I would post this today, because I could barely make myself write the first part, whereas the second one just poured out of me, so too speak. Thanks for the reviews and enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Ricky "Firecracker" the meerkat, he belongs to Hipturtle 15, thanks for letting me use him.**

The trio of penguins returned to the zoo at around noon. People were out on their lunch breaks so it wasn't difficult to sneak back into the penguin exhibit and pretend nothing had happened.

Kowalski headed directly into his lab and pulled out his clipboard. He went through his notes and found the print from their crime scene. The tall penguin wasted no time in getting that thing scanned and setting his computer to compare it to the database. It contained paw, claw, wing and flipper prints of all law enforcement personnel and any animal that had ever committed a crime against humans or other animals.

It was only a matter of time now, they would soon have the name of their perpetrator and then it would only be the simple matter of catching him and bringing him to justice. Kowalski smirked at the thought, "Who knows, he might make an escape attempt or try to dispose of us, then we would have to," his smile dropped and he stepped back. He couldn't believe what he just thought about, "Kill… him," he muttered.

His head descended until his eyes were focused on his flippers, they were shaking like crazy. "NO! I must not think of such things!" he ordered himself and went back to his desk. The black lump crossed his mind, "I still have to examine it."

He parted his beak as far as he could and raised one of his fins. He couldn't throw up on cue, like his team mate, so he had to go with the far more unpleasant method. He pushed the flipper down his esophagus all the way to his stomach. His eyes began watering as the gag reflex was trying to get the foreign body out. He felt something smooth and since he didn't eat anything other than fish, he was sure it was the test tube.

He wrapped his fin around the glass and managed to fish it out without vomiting. "There you are," Kowalski said with a slightly raspy voice. He sat down and took a petri dish, in which he emptied the test tube. He probed the lump for a minute or so and easily managed to identify it, "Oil… with various dust particles caught in it… and something else… of greater proportions."

He grabbed a Pasteur pipette and dropped some propanone on his sample. The oil slowly dissolved leaving behind something black. Kowalski's eyes widened and he let out a gasp. "A feather," he said and picked it up with a pair of forceps. He looked it over, "I might get some DNA out of this," the penguin said to himself and started the process of extracting it the nucleic acid.

Meanwhile, Private and Rico were outside patrolling the zoo. They hadn't done it in a long time so they were especially excited about it. "Now we just have to check the entrance and then we're free," said the smaller penguin. His partner grunted some noises of agreement in response and followed him.

They slid east, to the front gate and stopped. The two looked around with smiles on their faces, "Looks like everything's perfect," Private said and high-fived his teammate.

Right then Rico started pointing at something; it was a newspaper, which someone had just left lying on the ground in front of the bench. "Now that's not very nice," remarked Private.

The two slid to the bench and picked it up, but they couldn't help but see the headline, "PET LEMUR GONE MISSING!" the two exchanged worried looks.

"I think we've got ourselves a kidna- I mean, lemurnapping."

"Yup!"

"We should investigate," Private suggested.

The duo slid back to the HQ and dropped through the fishbowl entrance. Kowalski was nowhere in sight, but they knew exactly where their mad scientist team mate was. They burst through the metal door, almost giving the tall bird a heart attack.

He turned around, still panting and holding his chest, "Don't ever barge in on me like that. I've just lost ten years."

"Sorry about that, anyway, Rico and I found a new case. Apparently a lemur has been napped," Private explained.

"That does not excuse your actions," Kowalski scolded.

The chubby bird looked at the ground saddened by the response. He felt like he had done something wrong and he really hated that feeling.

Seeing Private's state, the scientist sighed and gave him a pat on the back. "There there, it's alright. We'll examine this abduction," he reassured.

Private looked up and smiled.

Rico regurgitated the newspaper and showed it to the scientist. Kowalski took it and flew it over, "Hmm, that's quite intriguing."

"What is?" the smallest bird asked.

"Well it says here that the owner returned home late last night and couldn't locate his pet. And here we are, the next day, reading about it, on the first page. This guy must have some deep pockets," Said the scientist with a smirk.

"Okay, now let's see if we've got a match on that print," Kowalski said and waddled back to his computer. A few clicks later the trio was shocked by the results. They stayed frozen on the spot for minutes until Private spoke up.

"Does that mean he's the one who built the machine?"

"O-of course not, I'm sure there's a completely rational to how the flipper print of someone with so many loose screws could have gotten, AW FORGET THIS!" he exclaimed, "IT WAS HIM! SPECIAL AGENT BUCK ROCKGUT!"

Rico let out a fake gasp.

"But how could it be him, I thought you said he was a great soldier, well, except for the fact that he's a bit loony," Private replied.

"It doesn't matter, we've got our prime suspect, which means we just have to find him now."

"But we have no idea where he is. The last time we saw him, we sent him on a wild squirrel chase, remember?" the smallest bird asked.

"I am aware of that. I presume we should inform Antarctic command about this. They should be aware that special agent Rockgut is a suspect in a case," the scientist began typing something on the keyboard of his computer and then turned back to his team mates. "There, I've sent an email and with the speed an average electron travels, the message must have already reached its destination. Now we wait for a reply."

A few seconds of silence later…

"Or we could go and look into the lemurnapping case. It's not like we're busy or something," Private suggested.

"Very well then, let's go," Kowalski ordered and the trio left through the fishbowl opening.

Their base remained silent and still, with the exception of the enzymes, which were slowly releasing the DNA from the feather Kowalski had found.

Somewhere…

An animal is lying on his side in the center of a room. One of his hind legs kicks once and is followed by a twitch of his foreleg. He turns on his back and one of his paws travels to his eyes. He rubs them and slowly begins opening his eyelids.

His eyes shoot open once he is aware of the unfamiliarity of the place he is in. He jumps up and begins backing up into a corner. He didn't watch where he was going so he tripped over a box. The animal turned around and continued crawling to the corner, still scared out of his mind.

The corner was safe, or so he thought, no one could sneak up on him from behind. Once there he slowly stood up and took in his surroundings. It was a small damp room, the single flickering light bulb barely reached all the corners. There were no windows and the metal door was welded and bolted shut. The only thing in the room, besides him, was a small metal container with a red cross on it.

His body began shaking, it wasn't used to these cold conditions, but he was a long way from home. He looked down at the box and quickly opened it. In front of him, was a tape recorder, which had "PLAY ME" written on it. He wasn't quite sure what was going on; prison was the first thing that came to mind.

His breathing picked up as he slowly reached for the play button. He pressed it with caution and saw the cassette as it began turning.

_"Hello Richard, or as your friends call you, Firecracker, I want play a game. Never have you aided someone, who asked for your help. Instead you only cared about your own wellbeing. One day that finally backfired on you when you were abandoned right when things got… hot. Now you will once again find yourself in such a position, and like before, there will be no one to help you out of it."_

Ricky couldn't believe what he was hearing. Who was this guy and how did he know what happened back in Denmark.

He carefully took the tape recorder out of the box. It was lying on a sheet of paper, hiding something underneath. He removed it and his eyes widened at the sight.

A scalpel, a lighter, a needle, thread and a small plastic bottle of rubbing alcohol. He grabbed the knife and brought it up to his face.

" _Located in your stomach is a plastic bag. Or at least that's where it was at the beginning. It contains a small amount of nitroglycerin. Being the explosives expert, which I know you are, I don't think I need to explain what kind of damage it's capable of inflicting to your body. Due to the heat your body is emitting, the nitroglycerin will slowly get warmer and lose its stability."_

The meerkat looked down and grabbed his abdomen.

"_I have given you the tools to remove the bag and continue your worthless life, but how far will you go to save it. Know also that the bag will tear down the walls of your current life and lead you to a new begging. Live or die? The choice is yours."_

The recording stopped… but the mammal didn't act. He retained his shocked state; looking at his stomach, with a scalpel in his paws.

"No way this is real," he said and stood up.

An unfamiliar sensation struck him and he once again clutched his belly. He could only describe it as some sort fluid splashing inside of him. An icy chill crawled up his spine.

This wasn't fake and he knew it, but cutting himself open to get an explosive; he wasn't sure if he had it in him. He threw the scalpel back into the box and dropped on three of his legs. He pushed the fourth one done his throat, triggering his gag reflex. Seconds later he threw up onto the concrete floor.

He wiped the tear from his eye and looked down. The rancid stench was overwhelming, but the vomit consisted of nothing else but his stomach juices. There was no bag in sight.

He pushed the paw into his mouth once again and he felt as the gag reflex tried to force something out of his stomach, but nothing came, because there was nothing left.

Ricky's throat was sore and his mouth was dry. The throwing up did absolutely nothing. The tape-recorder's words played in his head, _"Located in your stomach is a plastic bag. Or at least that's where it was at the beginning."_

Could the nitro have already entered his small intestine; a griping pain struck him, forcing him to once again clutch his abdomen. His breathing picked up and he looked at the metal box; He basically had everything he needed to both cut himself open and stitch back together.

Ricky walked to the box and kneeled down. He grabbed the alcohol and poured some over his stomach. The cool sensation deceived him, by letting him think it would take some of the edge off the pain. He pressed the scalpel against his abdomen and pulled it up. He screamed as he felt the crimson line being drawn.

He almost didn't dare looking down, but he had to. Blood was already soaking his fur and everything seemed to be getting out of control. He grabbed the two sides of the laceration and tried pulling them apart. He failed to take his fur into account, which prevented him from making a clean cut. The pain, of his muscles getting torn, forced him to stop and he began crying.

The torturous pain was challenging his will to live and it was winning. He couldn't do it, he wanted to die already so it could all just be over. He didn't want to wait until that bomb finally goes off and rips him apart, if he was going to die, then at least by his own paws.

The meerkat tightened his grip on the scalpel and brought it up to his neck. He pressed the sharp steel against his fur and felt its cold. He just had to pull it and it would all be over.

The more he thought about it, the harder his paw was shaking, until he finally let go of the knife. He broke out crying once again and started punching the ground; why was he so weak, why couldn't he do something as simple as killing himself?

…Fire…

It crossed his mind and he knew what he would do, he looked into the box and took out the rubbing alcohol and lighter.

Perhaps it was the raging pain clouding his judgment and driving him insane, but as he was pouring the flammable liquid over his body, he was smiling. A spark was all it took to ignite the vapors and in seconds he was engulfed in fire, screaming as his body was reduced to nothing but charcoal.

While burning he remained in the kneeling position and only after an explosion ripped open his gut, he fell forward and remained still.

Skipper stood in front of the computer monitors, shocked by the suicide. He couldn't make heads or tails of the emotions overwhelming him. This wasn't how it's supposed to be; the victims aren't supposed to kill themselves, they should fight for their lives.

He punched the control panel, "It's what you get for being so selfish, Ricky," Skipper lied to himself and waddled out of the room. The tight pain in his chest struck him again and he clutched the feathers where his heart was. "This is getting old," he remarked and continued his waddle. He just wanted to get some rest already, he was tired.

**I know what you're thinking, he should've drank the alcohol to kill himself. Well, I thought about it, but decided to go with auto-arson instead.**

**BTW, is it okay if I write like this, I mean just a touch of humor, like back in the laboratory, or should I leave out scenes like that completely and make it even more morbid than it already is?**

**Hope you liked it and review!**


	7. Cirrhosis

**7 – Cirrhosis**

**Thank you for the reviews and enjoy the latest chapter. It is my last update for the year.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Satan, he belongs to Asmith137, thanks for letting me use him**

A door slides open and through it waddles special agent Buck Rockgut. Behind him he is pulling a skateboard on which an unconscious penguin lies. The lying bird is quite large and has scars over its entire body, but the most surprising feature might be the fact that his feathers are blood red.

Rockgut brings the skateboard to the middle of the room, where an odd-looking contraption is standing. He grabs some ropes, which were run through a system of pulleys on the ceiling, and begins tying them to the unconscious bird. Once he's did so, the special agent began pulling on another rope, which in turn, began lifting the red penguin off the skateboard and into an upright position.

"Damn you're a fat bastard," he remarked once he got the bird into the up into the air. With the help of a stool, he began locking the larger bird into place. "You're finally getting what's coming to you Satan. Nobody walks away untested," he smirked in response to his own words.

Meanwhile, in an elevator, a trio of penguins was travelling up, to the penthouse of a skyscraper. It was quiet, because Rico had taken out the loudspeakers playing the elevator music, as well as the security camera, which would alert the staff of their presence and having Officer X on their tail feathers was the last thing they needed right now.

The elevator came to a halt and they slid out. The trio immediately took on their battle poses and looked around. "Looks like the place's empty," said Private.

The little bird was proven wrong once he heard a sniffing noise coming from a nearby room. The penguins went into high alert and they quietly slid to the source of the noise. The door to the room was open and there was a red chair in the center of it. Peaking just over the backrest, were light brown hair, most likely belonging to the owner of this apartment, assumed Kowalski.

The genius bird turned to Rico, to give him the orders, but was surprised to see that Private was already giving the maniac signals with his flippers. Rico nodded and slid into the room.

A few seconds later, the man was knocked out cold and lying on the floor. The remaining birds entered as well. "Excellent work Rico," commended the scientist. And then turned to the man; he was in his mid-forties, had short brown hair and was wearing a bathrobe. He pulled apart the man's eyelids, "Just as I suspected, they are bloodshot. He was obviously mourning the disappearance of his pet."

"I think that was rather obvious, Kowalski. Now can we please start with the investigation," Private said.

The scientist grumbled something to himself, before replying, "Fine, let's go."

They exited the room and slid through the rest of the apartment. While Rico already began sweeping the place for prints, the remaining birds tried to piece together what had happened. "The kidnapper most likely entered via balcony door, which had no lock due to this being the penthouse and the only point of access being the elevator," Kowalski said.

"But then you would have to fly to get here or at least scale the side of the building and that's a whale of a task," Private said.

"Exactly, that's why I doubt this crime was committed by a human. There's no way a person could manage to do something like this."

The smallest bird looked over to the living room and saw the various pieces of art, "Why would anyone go through all this just to kidnap a lemur? Wouldn't stealing these other things be more profitable?"

"You're right Private, I honestly doubt you could hold a lemur for ransom. Then again, the owner did seem to care strongly for this girl and the police are unlikely to involve themselves in such simple matters as the abduction of a pet."

Rico began squawking and got the attention of the remaining two birds. Kowalski and Private slid over to him and saw what he was pointing. Protruding out of the mess of various hand and paw prints was the clear outline of a flipper.

"Looks like it came from a penguin," said Private.

"I concur," replied Kowalski.

"How many penguins are there on Manhattan that we know about?"

The scientist pulled out his clipboard and quickly got the exact number, "Not counting us, none, but then again, we DO know of a certain rockhopper, whose print we found just a few hours ago, which means this lemurnapping and the animal cruelty case…"

"Are related," finished Private, "Rico! Take that print with us so we can confirm our theories. Now let's head back to the zoo."

The Mohawk wielding bird collected the print with the help of a piece of tape and swallowed it. The trio then slid to the balcony, where Rico regurgitated their hang glider. They gracefully flew off the building and headed straight back to the zoo. This method might be a tad scary, but it was the fastest they had and every second counted in a case like this.

Elsewhere, inside a toy store, surrounded by shelves stacked with all kinds of playthings, was a large table with a model railroad. It consisted of a beautiful grassy landscape with forests, farms and lakes. Part of the railroad even went through a miniature city, where a small toy train was standing. It only consisted of an electric locomotive and a single wagon with a key on its roof.

On the other side of the table, was a metal construct, which was holding a red penguin in place. There were two metal parts running over his shoulders and a third one between his legs. They were connected to a fourth one, which ran horizontally across the bird's abdomen. A single lock padlock topped off the restraints.

On the backside of the contraption was a round-bottom flask holding a clear solution with just a tint of yellow to it. It was turned upside-down and hose was attached to it, via a release mechanism, which had a timer on it. The hose ran down to about the middle of the contraption where it then passed through a hole in the steel.

Lying on the table, in front of the penguin, was a shaving razor and a funnel, which went through a hole in the table.

The bird's flipper began twitching and was then slowly raised. He grabbed his head and let out a groan. His eyes slowly began opening and he immediately noticed the restraints. He brought both his flippers up and tried loosening them, but they wouldn't budge.

He looked around and saw the unfamiliar surroundings. The numerous stuffed animals, which were all turned to appear as if they were staring at him, were causing some unease inside the bird.

He focused back on the restraints and tried wiggling around, but they were too tight, he could barely breathe, let alone escape. That's when the razor caught his eye; he grabbed it and attempted inserting it into the padlock, but it wouldn't fit.

He let out a growl and frantically began swinging his head from side to side, trying to find the person responsible for the situation he was in, "HEY! WHO DID THIS? SHOW YOURSELF!" he yelled. "I swear when I find you I'll rip off your limbs, crush your bones and feed on your marrow! I'll strip your body clean of its muscles! I'll scoop out your eyes with a-"

The penguin heard a screeching noise and he began searching where it was coming from. The noise was getting closer and closer. He looked down on his right and spotted a creepy looking penguin doll on a skateboard, which slowly came to a stop.

He stared at it for some time, until it finally spoke, "Hello Satan, I want to play a game. The sensation you are currently experiencing might be unfamiliar to you, but those around you know it all too well. You have been using fear as your primary weapon for years. Enjoying the sight of your enemies as they trembled in your presence and indulging in the tears you filled their eyes with. Today you will learn what it is like to be afraid."

The penguin's breathing picked up, he was getting angrier by the second, he wanted to just rip through the steel and tear that thing apart. Those red eyes, that beak, which was synched with the voice it was playing; a shiver travelled through his body.

"First, I will tell you how to escape. I'm sure you have noticed the model railroad in front of you. The key, which will free you, is on a wagon on the other side of the table. Once this recording comes to an end, you will have 2 minutes to complete the electric circuit, by filling beaker, located underneath the funnel, with a red conducting fluid, I am certain you are familiar with. The razor will provide you with the means of releasing it. There are approximately 2 pints of blood running through your veins, but you'll only have to sacrifice a third of that to bridge the gap."

The penguin was taken aback; was this thing telling him to cut himself?

"And here is what will happen if you fail. There is hose, which is run into your body all the way to your liver. Once the time is up, a liquid, known as the piranha solution, will be released. It will destroy your vital organs and bring your life to an early end. But it's nothing new to you, just an acceleration of the effects of alcohol abuse you've been performing for years. How much of yourself will you sacrifice to escape? Live or die? Make your choice."

The voice stopped and the doll's head dropped. Satan watched, cold sweat running down his back. He looked at the razor still in his flipper and tightened his grip on it. He felt the sharp edge began imbedding itself in his flesh. The stinging pain, which made his fin shake. A single drop of blood fell from it.

He smirked at the sight, "If you really think I'm afraid of a little pain, then you've got another thing coming." He extended his flippers over the funnel. One was straight all the way while the other was pressing the razor against the feathers of the first.

He let out a chuckle and pulled it, slicing his veins and freeing the iron containing fluid. A couple of feathers, which were cut in the process, fell down first, but they were immediately followed by the blood. It had a darker tone of red to it, which meant, it wasn't infused with oxygen. It was slowly dripping from his flipper and into the funnel. The funnel was pouring into a beaker, which had two wires attached to its edges.

The smirk was slowly fading from the penguin's face; he didn't know how much time he had left, but it couldn't be more than a minute. The bleeding wasn't fast enough. He could never complete the task in the time limit.

He knew what he had to do, he had to sever the only blood vessel that would do the job in the time given. He repositioned the razor and cut himself again. This time, the blood was a much brighter red and it was squirting out of his flipper in synch with his heartbeats. The funnel was barely keeping up with the flow of blood and almost started overflowing.

It was almost hypnotic; the pulsating arch of blood as it left his body and entered the maelstrom leading into the nether.

The penguin was getting drowsier by the second. A slight lightheadedness overcame him and he was almost glad that he was strapped to this device, otherwise, he might have fallen. He heard a sound in the distance and looked up; something was getting closer.

He narrowed his eyelids and saw that it was the train. He did it, freedom was on its way. He lazily extended the uncut flipper and grabbed the key as the train passed by. His body acted on its own here; he unlocked his restraints and fell down to the ground. It didn't hurt and he didn't know why. He picked himself up, and began waddling towards the door, leaving only two trails of blood behind him. One from his flipper and the other from a wound on his lower back, which had blood running down one of his legs.

He heard the sound of liquid pouring followed by sizzling, behind him, but he didn't know or care what it was, he just wanted to leave. The penguin reached the door and pressed his flipper against it, but it wouldn't budge. He turned to his side and leaned his body against the glass, but it had no effect.

His eyelids were so heavy so he let them rest; just for a minute, or so he thought. He fell over and stayed there, lying on his side in an ever growing pool of blood.

He had sliced his artery in order to escape, but he couldn't think straight once the blood loss was too severe and he simply forgot about the bleeding. To come so far and be let down by the weakness of your own body is simply sad. Is there really no way to overcome the physical limits our mortal vessels are created with? No way to push ourselves beyond the breaking point without breaking? Apparently not.

A hang glider, carrying the weight of three penguins, descended from the sky and landed on top of the artificial ice floe of the penguin habitat. Rico quickly swallowed the glider and then they all entered their HQ. They all headed directly into the lab. Rico regurgitated the flipper print, which the scientist quickly scanned and compared to that of Buck Rockgut.

"2% match," reported the computer.

"Wait, how can that be?" Private asked.

"Simple," replied Kowalski, "It's not Rockgut's print," he said with a mixture of anger and disappointment in his voice.

"Run it against the database then."

"Very well, but it will take time," said the scientist and did as told.

Nobody left the side of the computer as pictures of different animals flashed in front of them. They stood still and waited in silence. The percentage gauge slowly reached the end, with no matches in the database.

"So that's it then, we can't do anything," Private said in a sad tone.

"We still have a deranged secret agent on the loose and as long as he remains on the island we'll find him," the scientist reassured. He turned back to his computer and checked for a response from Antarctic command. "We've received a reply," he said and opened the email.

_Penguin unit of Central Park Zoo_

_You must be mistaking about special agent Buck Rockgut. He has been declared dead 3 years ago after he went MIA in the Himalayas. His body was never found and no one has heard of him since. Please update your database to avoid such mistakes in the future._

_Also, it has come to our attention that there has been a change in your chain of command. Please update that as well._

_Antarctic command_

The first part of the mail let the birds stupefied. Rockgut was dead, but a print doesn't last that long. There had to be a mix up of some sort.

"I don't believe one word of what they're saying," Private immediately gained the attention of his fellow birds. "There's something fishy going down here and I'm NOT talking about that blobfish in the back of the fridge everyone's afraid to eat. Kowalski, update the computer. Rico, let's change the car batteries. We're going for a ride."

Rico and Private left the laboratory and Kowalski quickly began typing on his computer. "Looks like I can put in Private's name as the unit leader, after all," he said to himself and opened the folder containing the unit's info.

Something was wrong, something was missing, somebody had tempered with it. There were only three BIOs in the folder and Skipper was missing. He went back to the database and entered his former leader's name, but the search came back empty. Someone had deleted his info from the database and there were only two location from which this could happen; the admiral's computer in Antarctica and Kowalski's right her, in the Central Park Zoo.

**The piranha solution is a mixture of sulfuric acid and hydrogen peroxide. It's used for the sole purpose of cleaning laboratory equipment of all organic matter. It's pretty hardcore.**

**Hope you liked it, sorry for the cliffhanger and review!**


	8. Mind Games

**8 – Mind Games**

**I am trying something new here with this trap. It's not going to be as conventional as those I made before, but I hope you enjoy it anyway.**

**I have something to confess, I didn't expect so many authors to volunteer their OCs. That is why I won't be able to include them all… in this story. You have inspired me to create a sequel to this story and as long as it'll still be okay with you, I would like include the OC, which will be left out here, in that story.**

**Skipperten: **I believe I should explain that my choices for the first 4 victims were amongst the reviewers of "The Kill List", a one-shot I published to see if I could even write this story. I wrote their names down and drew them from a bag, which means, everybody had the same chances of appearing. No hard feeling though, right?

**Disclaimer: I don't own Caroline "Crazey", she belongs to CrazeTheWaffleCat, thank you for letting me use her.**

Marlene pulled her face out of the depths of her pillow. Her eyes were red and there were lines of salt in her fur, from all the dried tears. She sniffed and looked around her cave. She saw her paintings and the various pieces furniture she had picked up over the years, but they could no longer provide the warmth they once did; they only took up space.

She felt anger rising up inside of her and jumped out of bed. She grabbed anything she could get her paws on and simply threw it towards the exit. She ignored the crashing noises the porcelain made or the clangs of the metal items when they hit the ground. She was in pain and had been denying it for too long. She had been keeping all the emotions to herself and it was a mistake.

She fell forward, but luckily caught herself with her front paws to keep herself from hitting the ground. Her eyes were tearing up again and she wanted to scream, just so Skipper would rush to her side, but she knew he was gone.

Marlene slowly stood up and wiped off her tears. She was just about to go and burry herself in her pillow again, when she heard a noise coming from the entrance. Her blood froze and fear took over her body. The adrenaline levels in her body were slowly rising; her heartbeat picked up and her breathing quickened. She swallowed a lump in her throat and slowly began turning towards the exit.

The light was obstructed by an obstacle of some sort and it created a shadow on the wall. Her eyes widened at the sight of the image it created. She set her sight on one single feature, the top of the head, which was as flat as a table. The otter didn't care about anything else, when she slowly began trotting towards the exit.

"Skipper?" she asked and saw the shadow moving back as she continued forward. "Skipper," she called once again and quickened her pace. She jumped over the debris, blocking the way out, and was soon showered with sunlight. It immediately blinded her and she had to shield her eyes with her forepaws.

Marlene looked around and spotted the outline of the figure she had been chasing just moments ago. Her eyes hadn't adjusted to the light yet so all she saw was a silhouette with a flat head.

"Skipper, is that you?" she asked again and removed her paws. She began, making out figure's features; the black and white plumage, the beak, the bright yellow eyebrows… wait eyebrows? She looked into the red eyes of the penguin in front of her, "You're not Skipper," she said to the smirking figure.

"I'm definitely not," he replied and swung his flipper at the girl's neck. He was holding a syringe and emptied its contents into the otter's body.

Marlene collapsed instantaneously and the rockhopper pulled the hood of his cloak over his head. He picked up the girl and threw her over his shoulder, before heading back inside her cave. He was grinning due to his success, "Nobody walks away untested," he said to himself.

Meanwhile, in the little workshop of horrors, Skipper removed a welding mask form his face and turned off the welding torch. He put the device down and observed the beauty of his latest contraption.

He was quite proud of himself, no matter how wrong the purpose of these machines might be. Rockgut's lessons in engineering had truly worked wonders. "Maybe Kowalski should pick up a thing or two from him," he remarked and his expression immediately saddened.

Pain was the only thing his work was good for and the only reason it even existed. With his head facing the ground he headed out of the workshop. He couldn't get Ricky of his mind and what he had done to himself. How could anyone just discard his own survival instinct and die instead of fighting to live?

He recalled something similar happening before, not long after he had accepted Rockgut's offer and became his apprentice…

**Flashback**

Rockgut was waddling down a hallway. Walking besides him, was a lemur with black fur and glasses. She was pulling a wheeled luggage bag, which seemed rather heavy. "You need any help with that?" offered the penguin.

"Just tell me where this "boy" of yours is and what you need me to find out," she replied.

"I need the codes to his security system," the rockhopper lied and stopped. "Down the hall, last room to the right," he said and turned around.

The lemur continued walking the way she was told and soon reached the door. She opened her bag and pulled out a taser. She lifted it up to eyelevel and turned the electric device on. An arch of electricity immediately formed and she observed it, "So beautiful and yet so deadly," she said and turned back towards the door. She first flipped a switch on her left, which turned off the lights in the hallway, and was good to go.

She grabbed the handle and carefully opened the door, creating nothing more than a small crack. The room was dark, but she could make out someone sitting in a chair at the desk. She carefully pushed the door open, taking great care to stay quiet, and slowly walked towards her target, but when something's too good to be true, it usually isn't.

She turned on the taser and pressed it against the shape's neck. The light, provided by the arch of electricity, showed her the truth. She stopped and brought her paw to the shape to feel it, "A doll?" she guessed and heard a footstep behind her. She turned around and tuned on the taser once more.

The lemur caught the glimpse of a penguin swinging something at her and she quickly grabbed that flipper with her free paw. The penguin, however, did the same with his free flipper, and got a hold of the taser wielding paw.

The two were tried to overpowering each other and spun around the room. They tightened their grips, on the other's appendage, and felt their grips loosening. Skipper broke the stalemate, by slamming his opponent against the wall. The force of the impact made her drop the taser, but sometime during the struggle he had lost his syringe.

He couldn't do much more in his current position so he jumped back and entered his fighting stance.

It was dark so the lemur, with her night vision, had an advantage over her opponent, but it was just what Skipper wanted her to think; he had memorized the exact number of steps he had taken and the turns he made. He knew the position of every piece of furniture and his hearing created a clear image of where his opponent was.

The lemur began circling the penguin, trying to get behind him. She was fairly confident about her success, because her opponent was standing completely still. She held her breath as she walked up to the bird from behind, with a smile. She swung her paw, aiming at his neck, but the penguin jumped to the left and avoided the hit completely.

The lemur turned in his direction and was met with a punch to the stomach, followed by a backflipper (backhand) to her cheek. She spun around and soon felt something grab hold of her neck. She struggled to get out of her current position, but lost consciousness before making any progress. Skipper gently lowered her to the ground and stood up again. He waddled over to the switch and turned on the lights.

He observed the dark furred mammal on the floor. _"If you ever lose your syringe, you can always use the choke hold," _Rockgut's word's echoed in his head. He let out a sigh and picked up the girl. Skipper threw her over his shoulder and left his quarters.

He carried the rather heavy mammal down the hallway to the room his mentor had told him to take her. The rockhopper was already there when he arrived, "Took you long enough," commented the older bird.

"Well some more info would've been helpful next time," Skipper replied and dropped the lemur in the centre of the room.

"Are you saying knowing her name isn't good enough for you?" Rockgut asked in a sarcastic tone and then began laughing. He went for the exit and was soon followed by the other bird. Skipper closed the door behind him.

He then took a welding torch and began sealing the entire thing. A few hours later, the two penguins were standing in front of some computer monitors. They were watching the footage from the room they had left the lemur in; it was small, about 1,5 by 1,5 meters, and approximately a meter high. Opposite to the door, Skipper had welded shut, was another one. It had a heavy-duty lock on it and the only other thing in the room, besides the lemur, was a pile of different fruit. The ceiling had numerous LED lights in it and they were all covered by a plate of glass.

The lemur slowly began waking up; first came the individual muscle twitches, followed by a groan. She slowly raised herself off the ground and began looking at her surroundings. "That old lying fart," she muttered and stumbled towards one of the doors. She angrily began punching it, "LET ME OUT!" she demanded.

She took a few steps back then charged at the door ramming it with her shoulder, but it had not effect. She was thrown back to the ground with a sore arm. The lemur picked herself up again and walked over to the other door. She was much more subtle this time and didn't resort to using force.

As expected, this one didn't budge either. She leaned her back against it and slowly slid down to the ground. "Calm yourself Crazey, you need to think your way out of this one," she told herself while rubbing her temples.

A static echoed through the room and it caught the girl's attention. It was soon followed by a deep emotionless voice, _"Hello Caroline, or as you preferred to be called, Crazey, I want to play a game."_

The lemur frantically began searching for the source of the voice, but the echo made that impossible.

_"You make a living by torturing other animals. You're quite good at it, because you enjoy the work you do. You test the pain tolerance of your victims, by exposing their bodies to various torture devices. Today, however, you will find yourself on the other end of the shock baton."_

The lemur smirked confidently, because she was sure she could take more pain than anybody she had ever captured.

_"In 144 hours, the door leading out of this room will open and you will once again be reunited with the rest of the world. Will you endure your confinement or will you give up what little sanity you have? Live or die? Make your choice."_

In the control room, Skipper threw the secret agent a confused look. "I don't get it, what's the big deal here? How does this compare to any of your other tests?" he asked.

"There are many kinds of torture. Physical is the usual favorite, but the body can only take so much before the heart finally stops. Our victim here is quite the masochist. Applying such a trap would be like a stroll in the park for her," he replied.

Skipper looked back at computer monitors and observed the girl's actions.

"144 hours, so what, that's about a week. Pfft, easy," she walked over to the pile of fruit and picked up an apple from it. Crazey quickly ate and then yawned. "Well this is gonna be boring like hell," she said and laid down.

Her plan was simple, sleep and eat; no need to waste energy. The lemur felt her eyelids slowly closing on their own. And she began drifting off, when a high-pitched whistle suddenly cut through the room and woke her up. She grabbed her ears, trying to prevent the sound from drilling into her head, but her efforts were futile; nothing she did, helped. So in the end she crawled into one of the corners of the room and tried to out scream the noise.

Skipper watched surprised by the display. It was all so simple and yet brilliant, "But wait, where's the test, this just looks like a method of driving her insane without the actual will-testing."

"I was getting to that!" Ruckgut snapped, "Like I was saying, there are many different kinds of torture and this one's psychological. Like I said before, the body can only take so much pain, but the mind won't let you off the hook so easily. Don't worry about the test, it's already inside the room, she just hasn't found it yet. The "Madhouse" will either be the location of her rebirth or demise," the rockhopper said and began waddling away.

Skipper wanted to follow, but Rockgut told otherwise, "Stay here and learn. I've got some things to do."

The captain saluted, even though he knew his response was obsolete here, and turned back to the video. He started feeling sorry for the girl, but he had been told to keep his emotions out. There simply wasn't any room for them in a profession like this.

**End of flashback (for now, the conclusion will be shown in the next chapter)**

Kowalski continued staring at what the database was showing him; there was no doubt about it, somebody had accessed the files from here and made the changes. He took an UV light from his drawer and turned it on above his keyboard.

It was no use; his prints had already covered any other that might have been there. It was quite a mystery he had to solve. "Who would even have the motive of doing such a thing?" he asked himself as he slowly waddled out of his lab. Kowalski climbed the ladder, leading outside, and was soon filling his lungs with fresh air.

He threw a glance over at Marlene's and noticed the wreckage at the entrance of her cave. Being a friend, he grew concerned and decided to head over. "Where are you going, Kowalski?" asked Private in company of Rico. The two were just returning from the garage.

"I'm just checking on Marlene," he replied, "If you wish, you can join me."

The two nodded and they jumped the wall together. After a quick dive they soon found themselves at the entrance of the otter's cave.

**Sorry I haven't updated this year yet, but I don't have any excuses, just laziness. I had to stop myself here, but I promise I'll update again next Tuesday or Wednesday.**

… **I think that's about it. I tried "liberating" my mind while writing this chapter, but looking at it, I assure you that I won't be repeating that anytime soon.**

**Hope you liked it and review!**


	9. Lost and Found Box

**9 – Lost and Found Box**

**Thank you for the reviews. As promised, I have created a conclusion to the flashback of the previous chapter, as well as brought the entire story one step closer to the end. There are two chapters left, maybe three.**

**I must apologize for not keeping my promise. I really thought I could finish this chapter, but writing it proved to be the actual psychological torture.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Caroline "Crazey", she belongs to CrazeTheWaffleCat, thank you for letting me use her.**

**Enjoy!**

At the entrance to the otter's cave, the trio of penguins slowly made their way across the debris covered floor. They were forced to watch their every step, because shards, of what was once a porcelain tee set, covered the ground. They were simply trying to avoid getting cut on it.

Kowalski was the first to enter the large living area. "Marlene, pardon my intrusion, but seeing the mess just outside your grotto, I couldn't help but come over and investigate the grounds of your actions," the scientist said.

He was met with silence, which he expected, but it seemed slightly off. It wasn't the usual "Marlene silence" he was used to.

Private and Rico caught up to him.

"Rico, I require a light source," Kowalski demanded.

The maniac obliged by regurgitating a glow-stick. He bent it, breaking the container inside, and it soon began producing a green glow. He handed it over to the scientist, who lifted it as high as he could, and illuminated the cave.

"Marlene!" he called again, his ear slits searching for any sounds of movement. As he looked around, he spotted a shape in the center of the otter's home. He slowly waddled towards it. The scientist was certain this wasn't Marlene, but he had no clue who, or rather what, it really was.

As he got closer, he glow stick revealed a black and green plumage. He also managed to make out a beak. Kowalski stopped a meter before reaching his target and threw the light source to where its feet were. It was Billy the Muppet-style penguin doll.

"Does that doll seem familiar or is it just me?" Private asked.

"We've definitely seen it before," assured the scientist.

"Who do you think left it here?" the smallest penguin asked.

"That's not important, right now, we have to find Marlene. She hasn't been outside her cave in approximately 189 days and I doubt she left on her own free will now. I suspect kidnapping. We'll have to…"

Rico knew the routine and simply let Kowalski's voice trail off in his mind. He instead started thinking about things of greater importance to him like: chainsaws, Mrs. Perky and dynamite. 'Man I could go for a good old-fashioned stick of TNT right about now,' he thought. His eyes were half closed and he had a dreamy look. He could just picture the object of his desire in front of him; the shape, the color, the smell… he sniffed the air and could've sworn he could actually smell some dynamite nearby.

"Is that penguin ticking?" Private asked, causing Rico's eyes to shoot open instantaneously.

He tackled the doll and slid with it across the stone floor right to the sewer lid. He grabbed it and threw it across the room, before hurling the penguin down into the depths of Manhattan's waste disposal system.

The maniac managed to cover his ear slits just in time before the loud bang of an explosion shook the foundations of the entire zoo.

"Great work Rico," commended Private, slightly shaken by the blast, "a little heads-up would've been nice though, I still hear ringing in my head."

"Trivialities, we're still alive and that's what's important," Kowalski said, while searching for the green glow-stick. He quickly spotted the object and slid over to pick it up, but as he bent over, he couldn't help but notice a brown stain on the otherwise gray floor.

"Rico, luminol!" he ordered and soon received a spray bottle of the requested item. He sprayed some of it on the stain. Once the two substances mixed, it began producing a faint glow. "Just as I suspected, blood," he said.

The remaining birds slid over to his side, slightly concerned.

The scientist continued spraying the luminol in different directions, creating a visible trail of light, leading from the cave entrance all the way to the hole leading to the sewers.

"Who do you think the blood belongs to?" Private asked.

"It doesn't matter. Its owner cut himself on a shard at the entrance, which means he went towards the sewers and if he's the one, who left us the explosive avian and kidnapped Marlene, then engaging in pursuit just moved to the top of our priorities list."

Private heard the orders and jumped down the hatch as soon as Kowalski finished; there was no time to waste. Unfortunately, his descend ended in the river of human feces, but the penguin's determination managed to keep his mind off the disgusting thoughts trying to enter it.

He swam to the ledge, where he climbed out and shook himself off. The little penguin heard two more splashes following suit and glanced over his shoulder. He saw Rico and Kowalski climbing out of the fecal river as well. "Took you two long enough, now where to?" Private asked.

"Providing, he is still bleeding and hasn't noticed, or tended, to the injury yet, he most likely went," Kowalski sprayed more of the liquid on the ledge, bordering with the river of human waste, "In that direction," he finished and pointed where the trail of light went.

"Then let's go," the smallest bird snatched the spray bottle from the scientist and proceeded by taking point. "And try keeping up this time," he said and waddled forward, revealing the trail of blood as he went.

**Flashback (The Conclusion)**

Skipper had been watching the footage of their latest victim for the last four days. He had been living off a diet of coffee and canned sardines and only left the side of the computer monitors for the two minutes it took him to get to the toilet; a luxury the lemur didn't have.

He was forced to watch the disgusting imagery of Caroline being forced to expel her waste material in one of the corners of the room, or cell if you will.  
>He didn't think this test would be so hard at first, but seeing the shape this girl was currently in, he couldn't help but feel sorry for her.<br>Her once full coat of black fur, had patches missing from it. They revealed the skin underneath, which was covered in scabs.  
>The lemur's eyes were bloodshot and wide open, her right eye also had an annoying twitch to it.<br>Trails of blood ran from her bottom lip, which was chewed up, by the girl herself.  
>Crazey was but a shadow of her former self.<p>

"Seven days are up, yes they are, any second now, door open, open, open, open, any second… now, now, now…" she repeated to herself. She had lost all perception of time, because there was no clock she could watch.

And due to the whistling she couldn't even sleep. Her body was trying to get her to sleep, but it only lasted for a second, before her head snapped back up.

She felt an itch on her snout and immediately started scratching it. Even after the feeling was long gone, she kept it up until she felt the warmth of blood on her paw. "You won't itch again, right nose?" she asked, waiting for a reply.

And after a few seconds she jumped up shouting, "STOP THAT NOISE ALREADY!" and as if someone had heard her, it did. Silence filled the room and after realizing it, a wide smile appeared on her face. She ran to the door and began banging her fists on it, "Freedom, come on!" she pleaded.

The sound of gears grinding could be heard coming from behind the door. She watched it with hopeful eyes, thinking this torture had finally come to an end, but it soon went silent again and her hopes were shattered.

"No!" she shouted and began punching the steel door. She ignored the pain it caused her paws.

Finally, she collapsed, her body trying to force her to sleep, and she was just about to close her eyes, when they were met with an intense blue flickering light. It took her a second to realize what was going on. The light was really annoying.

She closed her eyes, but could still see its brightness through her eyelids. She covered her eyes with her paws , but found herself in a position unfitting to fall asleep in. So once again, she was forced to crawl into a corner, where she spent several hours until the flickering was replaced by whistling again.

Skipper cringed when he saw the girl banging her head against the wall, leaving an ever-growing stain of blood on it. When she finally stopped, she turned her attention to her remaining fruit.

She moved in a zombie like fashion over to it and fell to her knees. She grabbed what was left and began eating it. Some of it had already begun rotting, but she ignored it. There was no water at her disposal so she had to survive off the moisture of the food. It was enough to keep her body functioning, but it couldn't replace the cold quenching sensation only water can give you.

She grabbed a banana and revealed something underneath. The glinting piece of metal caught her attention immediately. The lemur seized it and pulled it out of the pile. Her eyes widened when she realized what it was, "A g-gun," she stuttered and observed it in her paws.

It was a small revolver with a light brown grip. She opened the magazine and found a single bullet in it.

Revenge was the first thing that crossed her mind, blasting the sound speakers the second. She stood up and aimed it in a random direction, but realized she would just be wasting ammo by doing so. She put the firearm back down and paced across the room with her paws covering her ears.

Skipper continued watching her over the next few days. The number of conversations she had with herself grew as well as the various monologues she practiced with the gun in her paws. He saw the panic attack she got when the sound was once again replaced with the flickering lights. That time, Crazey was already aiming the gun at the ceiling when it fell out of her paws.

He didn't know if it was because of the exhaustion or second thoughts. Either way, he was glad, because the glass pane covering the ceiling was bulletproof.

The last day, twelve hours 'till the door would finally open, the lemur had run out of food and ammonia filled the room. Crazey was sitting on the ground with her back leaned against the wall. In her paws, was the gun; she kept pulling and releasing the hammer. Saliva was dripping from her slightly open mouth. Her eyes were weary and dead, her actions seemed to be completely automated.

Skipper was getting tired of the display. He wanted to take pity on the girl and release her now, but that would be breaking the rules.

Suddenly, she stopped playing with the gun.  
>She turned it around and pressed her forehead against its muzzle.<p>

Skipper's eyes widened, "Don't do it you stupid bi-," he was cut off, by the sound of the gun going off.

The penguin remained silent for several minutes, due to the shock. He shut his eyes and slammed his curled up flippers on the control panel. "I know you're there. Just come out already," he said, seemingly to himself.

A rockhopper penguin stepped out of the shadows and waddled over to Skipper. "Anything worth watching," he asked in a mocking tone.

Skipper didn't respond so Rockgut continued by explaining the lesson, "You're probably wondering why she killed herself."

"She thought she'd be trapped forever and wanted a way out," he replied.

"It's amazing how demanding a mind can be," said the rockhopper, "A little sleep deprivation, losing your sense for time and you've got yourself a suicide." a malevolent smirk formed across his face while Skipper just waddled away.

"A mind is a terrible thing to lose, Skipper," the older penguin said, "If you don't detach yourself emotionally you'll find yourself in the same situation as the girl you watched.

**End of flashback**

Skipper finally returned to reality and found himself leaning against a wall several feet from where he was before. He had enough, he wanted out of this deal. He'd rather live alone than continue torturing other animals.

But there was still someone standing in his way, his so called mentor. His team might have kept his secret, but Rockgut could go and alert Antarctic command whenever he wanted. He'd be a fugitive, constantly on alert.

There had to be a way to get the rockhopper to keep his beak shut… unfortunately, there was only one certain way of that happening.

Skipper was snapped out of his thoughts by the sound of footsteps getting closer. He thought fast and entered one of the rooms on either side of the hallway. They were dark so there was no need to close the door afterwards.

He waited patiently and finally saw a shadow appearing in front of him.

**What kind of sick bastard would put a cliffhanger in a place like this? I can only name one. Well, here it is. I really hated writing this chapter, but this was the first version I didn't hate and I couldn't risk ruining it again. I assure you the next update won't take this long.**

**Hope you liked it and review!**


	10. Final Exam part 1

**10 – Final Exam Part 1**

… **Thank you for the reviews and enjoy!**

Skipper waited inside the dark room as the shadow in front of its entrance grew. Soon, he spotted a pink webbed foot, and a second later, it was the whole rockhopper, wearing his cloak, of course, and carrying a large brown bag thrown over his shoulder. He had worked with the agent for some time now and he knew exactly what the contents of that bag were.

Pure adrenaline pumped through his veins, enough innocent blood had been shed; there was only one more animal left to bleed.

Skipper tackled Rockgut and pinned him against the opposite wall, one of his flippers was pressed against his neck. The agent needed a moment to realize what was going on. He glanced at his attacker and smirked when he saw his protégé.

"Any special reason for cutting off my air supply?" the rockhopper asked.

The captain kneed him in the gut, knocking the air out of Rockgut's lungs, and then threw him to the side. The older penguin attempted to pick himself up, but a kick to his side knocked him back down. Skipper turned him on his back, with his webbed foot, and looked him over.

The pathetic state his so-called idol was currently in made his blood boil. He had followed this bird and in the end, it turned out he was no better than the villains he chased. "Scum, unworthy of life," he muttered under his breath.

Rockgut held his sore side while panting. Eventually, he burst into laughter, but all it did to Skipper was make him angrier. He continued shooting his glare as the rockhopper finally calmed down. "The funniest thing is… if you kill me here… I'll still be better than you… I never killed anyone," he said between pants, then continued his laughter.

Skipper pounced on Rockgut and began strangling him. In that moment of blind rage, he lost control of his body, and when he returned to reality, he saw the face of the choking rockhopper. He immediately let go of him and saw him gasp for air.

The captain stood up and stepped away from his mentor, "I'm done! You hear me? DONE!" he proclaimed and turned around to leave, when he spotted the sack Rockgut had been carrying earlier. "And I'm saving this one," he added and undid the knot sealing the opening.

The first thing that caught his eye, was the tip of a brown ear, as it peeked out of the bag. His eyes widened, because he recognized that tone of brown immediately. He peeled back more of the bag and uncovered the unconscious otter.

"Marlene!" he called, checking for a pulse, but felt none through her fur. He brought his cheek down to her pink nose, while at the same time, watching for movements of her chest.

The commando penguin finally calmed down when he felt the warmth of her breath penetrating his waterproof feathers (amazing, isn't it). He lifted himself and took another look at her. She was still as beautiful as he remembered her. True, he watched her every day on the monitors, but there was no true substitute for her.

He smiled and caressed her cheek, before standing up again and changing his expression to a more serious one. "I didn't want to do this, but you went too far," he said before a sudden surge of pain struck him in his neck.

"And you're forgetting your place, soldier," said the rockhopper penguin and let go of the syringe he had just emptied.

Skipper felt his neck, finding the syringe, and pulling it out. He stumbled to the side and looked at his flipper. The sight of the needle made him flinch and he dropped it. His vision was getting blurry and he completely forgot about revenge; there was only one thing he wanted to do right now.

"Hold on Marlene…" he mumbled and dropped to his knees, "I'll get you out of here." He tried wrapping his flippers around her limp body, but they weren't exactly listening. Everything started spinning until he fell over unconscious.

Rockgut stepped closer and took a look at the scene; a penguin and an otter, next to one another. "Cute," he remarked and spit some blood at the wall. "Nobody goes untested. You should've heeded my warning, but instead, you ignored it. You think killing some animals was hard? You have no idea."

Somewhere, inside a large warehouse filled with rows of shelves stacked with boxes. They were covered in dust, giving no exact indication of their age, but still suggesting that the place had been closed or abandoned for quite some time now. Near one of the corners of the vast facility, a sever grate was slowly raised by a makeshift milk carton periscope.

"It's too dark, I don't see a thing," Private said and lowered the periscope again. "I'm going in," he declared and started climbing the horizontal bars serving as a ladder.

The trio had followed the "breadcrumbs" to this spot. Kowalski presumed the ladder was there, because the animal they pursued had used this entrance before and installed the bars for easier access

Private pushed the grate aside and climbed out of the sewers. He looked around, spotting nothing suspicious, and waved his flipper over the open drain. Rico and Kowalski joined him and they quietly waddled forward.

As far as they knew, the element of surprise was still on their side.

Private felt a slight pressure against one of his feet and his heart skipped a beat. He turned around and tackled his teammates. The three penguins found themselves on the ground, when fluorescent lights, suspended from the ceiling, began flickering and finally all turned on, lighting up the entire warehouse.

"So much for the element of surprise," commented the scientist.

The smallest bird stood up and dusted himself off. "We can still count ourselves lucky, when I hit that tripwire, I was sure I set off a booby trap." Private snickered in response to his own words, while Kowalski just rolled his eyes.

"Nonetheless, it still blew our cover and I am certain we'll stumble across more dangerous traps. We must watch our every step. For all we know, there could be tripwires all over the place."

"You're probably right," Private gave it a thought and came up with an idea. "Rico, give me a strike!" he ordered.

The weapons expert snickered then began forcing something up his throat. The object seemed to be giving him some trouble, but eventually, he spat out a bowling ball, which rolled down the row, they were in, and activated two traps on its way. The first was a jet of fire from a hole in the wall and the second opened a trap door, which swallowed the bowling ball.

"Good call, Private," commended the scientist and began walking forward, "Now we can safely-" he felt one of his feet sink slightly, "Murphy."

A small turret raised itself from out of the floor and shot three darts, before descending again. The trio of penguins clutched themselves where the darts hit and were immediately overcome by its sleep inducing effect.

"Kowalski…" Private managed to utter

"Yes, Private?"

"I'm moving you to yellow (referring to the chart from the episode:"Stop Bugging Me")," the chubby bird said before collapsing.

Inside a dimly lit room, a flat-headed began stirring in his sleep. His eyes fluttered open and he slowly stood up, groaning, "Where the…" he muttered, before he remembered what had happened not long ago. "MARLENE!" he called and frantically began looking at his surroundings.

The penguin was inside a small cage, similar in size to those used by the late zookeeper Alice, with some differences; this one had a padlock, actual steel bars and was bolted to the ground.

Skipper went for the door and tried prying it open, but it wouldn't budge, and his flippers were too big to pick the lock with. He punched the bars in frustration and heard groaning coming from somewhere.

His cage was the only lit thing in the room so he couldn't see who was making the sound. It was definitely feminine and he could only think of one female right now. "Marlene? Is that you?" he asked.

An otter was roused from her slumber, by a metal clang, and she slowly stood up. She heard someone calling her name and the voice seemed familiar.

She clutched her ears and shut her eyes, "Why can't I just forget him?" she asked herself and let tears flow. She fell to her knees and pressed her forehead against the ground.

"Marlene… It's me, Skipper… You have to help me… Hello?" the voice continued calling.

Her paws couldn't block out his calls so she stood up and just yelled into the darkness, "STOP IT! Please… I know you're not real…" she dropped again. "It's all just in my head," she said and buried her face in her paws.

"Marlene… just turn around… please," Skipper begged.

"I can't," she replied, "I want to move on; I have to forget about you."

It was like Skipper's heart had just been ripped out of his chest that moment. The otter he had observed from afar, ever since the day the two met, had just proclaimed she didn't want anything to do with him.

There was a mixture of emotions overflowing his body, most of which he didn't understand. He tried to find the right words to persuade her to turn around, but he knew his presence was causing her nothing but pain.

"Marlene… if it's right with you… I can offer you closure," he offered in a sad tone.

He couldn't see her, but she lifted her head hearing those words.

"You can't forget what you saw, but what you can do is accept it and move on."

Marlene wiped her teary eyes and continued listening.

"Don't waste anymore time crying over me, because it breaks my heart seeing you without a smile."

She looked up at the darkness in front of her and stood up, "Thank you," she replied to the voice. Marlene knew there was one last thing she needed to do, say her goodbyes. She turned around and saw the caged penguin.

She felt bad, her mind had "locked up" Skipper, just to keep her memories of him, but it was eating away her sanity. She had to let go of him, not for her own sake, but so he can finally rest as well. "Goodbye, Skipper," she said, tears of joy escaping her eyes, and turned around. She began walking forward into the darkness.

The ground beneath her paws suddenly disappeared and she fell. She hit the hard floor, but picked herself up again, "Why does it hurt, I thought I was imagining this whole thing."

Lights, spread out across the entire ceiling, turned on and illuminated the room she was in. Marlene shielded her eyes at first, but they quickly adapted to the new conditions. "Where am I?" she asked and began looking around.

The room looked like the inside of a small chapel. There were three rows of wooden benches on either side of a short aisle. She had been standing on a slightly raised platform in its center, which was actually a pressure pad; it was what triggered the lights. The various religious motives depicted in paintings hung on the wall, had no meaning to her, but they still gave her chills.

She noticed that there was no altar, instead, there was a coffin made of glass (no relation to the trap). It was open and had steps leading to it. It was positioned on top of a table covered with a white tablecloth and the steps made it easier to be accessed.

Skipper took the surrounds in as well and already knew what was going on, but… there was nothing he could do here, he was merely the prize, it was Marlene's test. He looked up and saw her walk right towards the coffin. "MARLENE DON'T!" he yelled concerned for her safety.

The otter stopped in her tracks and turned around; the cage from before, holding Skipper, was still there. "B-but, I let you go," she said and found herself being pulled towards him.

"Marlene you have to listen to me."

"Why are you still here?"

"You're being tested, we have to escape."

"Am I hallucinating?" she reached the cage and clutched her head, "I'm losing my mind."

"MARLENE!" shouted Skipper and made the girl flinch. He reached out of the cage and grabbed her forepaw. He pulled her closer, "Marlene, this is real, you aren't losing your mind," he reassured.

She looked him in the eyes, those calming blue eyes, and knew he was telling the truth. She raised her paw and squeezed it between the bars of the cage. She caressed the Penguin's cheek and felt the heat protruding through his feathers. "It IS you," she whispered, creating a smile on Skipper's face.

The moment came to an end by static filling the room, followed by a deep emotionless voice, _"Hello Marlene, I want to play a game. For the past 6 months, you have been welling in your own pity. It is time to bring an end to your sorrow. Before you stands the penguin, responsible for it all. His disappearance was the cause of all those sleepless nights and all that crying. Today, I offer you freedom. Stand back and watch as your pain disappears forever."_

They both looked around and lastly up, where they saw it, a giant cross, with one of its points aiming at the cage bellow.

Marlene looked back at Skipper and he could see the panic building up inside of her.

_ "However, there is an alternative. You can take his place, by simply entering the glass coffin and falling asleep. You will escape all the pain this world has caused you and save the bird you love. You have 5 minutes. Live or die? The choice is yours."_

The "chapel" went silent while the otter and penguin just stared each other in the eyes.

Skipper knew he should be formulating an escape plan right now, but he couldn't break the stare, he opened his beak slightly, waiting for words to come out, but Marlene beat him to it.

She placed a paw on his chest before speaking, "Promise me… you won't blame yourself."

The moment of confusion was replaced by the sudden realization of the meaning of her words. He stood there, frozen in place, as he watched Marlene run towards the glass coffin. She climbed the steps and laid down inside. Her weight activated a pressure pad inside, which slowly closed the lid.

She threw a last look at the penguin and smiled, before closing her eyes and allowing herself to drift off. After all, she was tired.

Skipper watched her actions, "Is this really what true love looks like; to do whatever it takes to save the other?" he asked himself and looked up at the timer above the coffin. There was still more than 4 minutes left; four minutes of silence, of painful waiting.

"Have I done everything in my power to save her… is there really nothing else I can do?"

He looked back up, his expression as serious as a heart attack. He smashed his beak against the bars of his cage. The pain the impact produced was unlike anything he had ever felt before. It didn't stop him, he continued.

The steel didn't give way, but that wasn't what he was aiming for. He chipped his beak and then repeatedly aimed for that area. Not long after, his beak began splintering. He wrapped his flipper around a pointy portion and snapped it off.

With the toothpick-like splinter in his possession, he waddled over to the door and picked the padlock. It took him just a few seconds to do so. Outside, he first ran his tongue over the now missing bit of his beak, just out of curiosity (you know, can't resist scratching a scab), then focused back on the job at flipper.

He slid across the aisle, jumping the platform in the center, and scaled the steps.

Marlene looked so peaceful in her slumber that it made him smile.

He elbowed the glass repeatedly, until there was a red stain on it. "Hoover dam," he cursed. The glass was bulletproof and there was no lock for him to pick this time… but there had to be something to stop; falling asleep couldn't be the test.

He heard ticking emanating from somewhere and looked down at the table beneath the coffin. Skipper jumped off the steps and moved the tablecloth aside, revealing a device behind it.

The turning gears seemed like an unnecessarily complicated mess, but in Skipper's eyes, everything had his purpose. Most of the device served as a timer to fulfill its true purpose, mixing the cyanide salt and sulfuric acid, creating the gaseous Prussic acid, which would poison the otter above.

There were plenty of ways to stop it, jamming something between the gears, being the easiest. He stepped back and took another glance at the timer above; 31 seconds remaining. He looked around, but saw nothing useful.

He could've saved her, had he more time… but-

"NO!" he shouted, determined to win.

He wasted no more than a moment of thought over it, any longer and he might've backed out.

Skipper jammed his flipper in-between two sprockets. The metal wheels didn't seem to notice as they slowly consumed the appendage. Bones were crunching and blood was being squeezed out of his flesh.

He pulled back on it, trying to at least slow down the device, but it barely did anything. The penguin took a glance at another pair of sprockets and he chuckled, because, when you're this far, it's the only thing to do.

He brought his free flipper to the other one and broke it; he jammed the upper part of it between the other set of gears.

They turned and turned, swallowing the flesh in their way.

**I must inform you that I don't know how a bird's beak grows. Can it really be splintered? If anyone knows, please tell me.**

**Hope you liked it and review!**


	11. Final Exam part 2

**11 – Final Exam Part 2**

**First of all, I believe there is someone I owe some credits. She gave me the idea for the concept of this trap (self-sacrifice). My original idea was a "Skilene vs. Julene" type of trap, but after reconsidering it, I believe this one worked much better. Thank you AlwaysRemainMe.**

**Thank you for all the reviews and enjoy!**

Inch by inch, the gears were pulling the penguin's flipper into its jaws. Skipper braced his free fin against the device, again, to try and slow it down. Another vein burst, as the pressure became too much, and spilled its crimson contents over the turning metal wheels.

Skipper was getting drowsy, the blood loss combined with the agonizing pain were putting a lot of strain on his already weakened heart. The sprockets were almost at the joint now, where the bone gets thicker. The lead penguin glanced at it, with his weary eyes, while breathing shallowly. For a brief second, he thought he had won; that his bones were strong enough to beat the device. The machine released a metallic screech as a lot of strain was put on both it and the calcium infused organ.

The penguin felt the vibration of a crack, when it reached his eardrum, travelling through his skeleton, and was tugged an inch further into the device. This surge of pain, however, did little. Skipper didn't cry or scream, his sadness had made him numb to the outer world. "I failed," was the only thing he managed to mutter before giving up. He didn't fight it anymore and he didn't care what might happen to him next. The only thing he was grateful for, was the fact that Marlene won't suffer like him. She just had to fall asleep… and never wake up.

The sprockets passed the blood onto each other as they made contact. Soon, every tooth was covered with the crimson liquid. More of it was being wrung out of the flipper and it oozed through the machinery. It reached the bottom, which had a metal plate screwed into place. The blood seeped through the cracks on its edge and reached the control box. A single drop was all that managed to form as most of the liquid tissue had already coagulated. It felt right onto a microchip, creating a few sparks and eventually smoke.

The gears suddenly stopped and Skipper's eyes fluttered open. He looked at them and felt their grip on his flipper disappearing. He pulled his fin back, once again going over his raw muscles and open nerves, but at least the sprockets allowed his appendage to escape.

His brain was so drugged with endorphins, desperate to dull the pain, that he didn't even register the sensation of his free flipper. His entire focus was set on something else.

He staggered over to the steps again and climbed them with the help of his good flipper. He once again reached the glass coffin, which was now slightly open. The locking mechanism was electronic and once that was out of the picture the entire thing broke. The pushed his fin into the crack and slowly opened it.

She lied there before him, no more cages or glass panels. All Skipper could do, was smile. Marlene's eyes slowly opened and she immediately spotted the black and white figure above her. "Skipper?" she asked as her eyes slowly focusing on him. Only then did she realize what was wrong with the image. "Skipper!" she yelled and stood up. She grabbed his good flipper with both her paws and asked, with tears forming in her eyes, "What did you do?"

Some of his beak was missing on the side, but that was nothing compared to the state his flipper was in; it was bent unnaturally in the middle and there were two lines running across it. Blood was dripping from it and forming an ever-growing puddle right next to the coffin.

"I… I s-saved you," the penguin said right before his eyes closed. His body rocked to the sides slightly and was threatening to fall over.

"SKIPPER!" shouted the otter, catching him, when she saw him leaning dangerously close to the edge of the steps. The two were about the same size, but there was no doubt that he was heavier than her so she had to gently lay him on the ground. She once again looked him over, unsure of what to do; he was still bleeding.

The worst part was definitely the shape. It resembled a piece of modern art and that was making Marlene sick. But she had to put her stomach aside here, if she didn't do something, he would surely bleed out.

The penguin stirred and when the sudden surge of agony struck his brain, his eyes shot open and he let out a grunt as his spine involuntarily arched. He wanted to stand up, but something was holding him down, he tried fighting it, but he was too weak, "Don't push yourself, you need to rest."

That voice, that soft voice; he looked up and was met with a pair of hazel brown eyes. "You're okay," she said and hugged him tightly.

The penguin was at a loss; he clumsily wrapped his good flipper around her and returned the embrace. "You were gone for so long I didn't think you'd ever wake up again. I… I just… I just don't think I could go through losing you again," Skipper's eyes widened; did she have feelings for him, after all.

This made matters more complicated; he wanted to flee the state, or even the country, but now what? He couldn't imagine pulling Marlene into this as well.

Skipper broke the hug and took a look at his throbbing flipper. It was once again straight and wrapped in white cloth, already stained with blood. The appendage had been immobilized by two pieces of wood, no doubt from the broken bench, he saw behind the otter's back.

"Did you do this?" he asked.

"I know I'm no doctor, but I had to help you somehow," she explained looking at the ground, "I'm sorry about your feathers, they were in the way."

There was a small pile of black feather besides them and Skipper chuckled at the sight of it. "They'll grow back… but you're unique, if I lost you today, I wouldn't know what to do," his words created an awkward silence between the otter and penguin.

_"*Static*… Well done Skipper I gotta say, I'm impressed," _said Rockgut's voice emanating from somewhere, _"You proved yourself and are free to go, unless you want to stay and help your teammates."_

The penguin jumped up, "What do you mean?" he asked.

_"Nothing special, it's just that your friends had their own troubles letting go of some things and I decided to lend them a flipper in doing so."_

"Son of a- WHERE ARE THEY?" he demanded.

_"Like that would do you any good. You couldn't save them all if you tried, probably just one… if you're lucky."_

He turned back to Marlene who had a frightened look in her eyes. 'Why can't this thing just be over already?' he thought and waddled over to her. "Marlene, listen carefully. I want you to find an exit and leave; don't wait for anyone. Once you're outside, head directly back to the zoo."

"B-but, what about you and the guys?"

"We'll be fine, I promise," he said and turned to leave.

But something stopped him in his tracks. A feeling inside him, as if something was missing, he felt like he had to do something. Skipper turned back to Marlene and looked her in the eyes, before kissing her. She was taken by surprise as his hard beak met her soft lips. She didn't know how to respond to it so she just closed her eyes and wrapped her paws around the penguin.

Skipper had to force himself into breaking the kiss, he kept repeating: _"Your team needs you"_, in his head, just to do so. As he pulled his beak back and saw the disappointed look in the otter's eyes, he forced the words out of his beak, "I'm not saying goodbye, we'll see each other again," he told her and slid off towards the exit, hoping it wasn't a lie.

Marlene followed him with her gaze and once he was out of sight, she smiled, "I sure hope so." There was only one door leading out of the room, the same Skipper left through, so she had no other choice than to follow him. The door led into a hallway, on her left, was pure darkness, and on her right, was an otter-sized door, with a green "EXIT" sign flickering above it.

She remembered very well what Skipper's orders were and she also knew the direction he went in, but she didn't want to just leave him behind, it didn't feel right. She balled her paws into fists, but her anger quickly subdued again. "Just… just make sure you don't abuse my trust," she said before leaving the building.

Somewhere in the complex, there were three different rooms, holding three different penguins, which all began regaining their consciousnesses at the same time. The rooms were adjacent to each other, via a fourth, smaller, one.

Rockgut observed them all on a set of computer monitors and was grinning. Skipper, however, was nowhere in sight. "Better hurry up soldier, the games wait for no bird," he said and pressed a button on the control panel.

**Kowalski:  
><strong>The genius bird woke up lying on the ground. He had a terrible headache so he rubbed his temples to relieve it. He also found it rather hard to breathe and after a second of consideration, he realized that was due to something pressing against his neck. He brought his flippers to it and felt it, it was a shackle of some sort, he quickly analyzed.

He looked around and scanned his surroundings, "I'm in a glass bulb adjacent, via a mechanical release mechanism, to another identical glass bulb above me, filled with what seems to be a granular white substance."

He was interrupted by some static, _"Hello Kowalski, I want to play a game. You are a brilliant penguin, who uses his intellect to benefit others. Yet all your achievements only bring pain to both yourself as well as those around you. Afterwards you drown your sorrow in large quantities of sugar. It is a bad way of dealing with depression and I would advise you to let go of it, but… your life isn't in your flippers anymore. In 60 seconds you will be consumed by your vice and never again hurt an animal. Live or die? It's not your choice."_

**Private:  
><strong>The chubby bird woke up in a lying position underneath a single light, but he couldn't move his feet or flippers. He looked at a fin and saw it wrapped in barbed wire. Some of the barbs had imbedded themselves into his flesh and caused some bleeding. He tried freeing his appendage, but it only caused him more pain so he let it go.

Static filled a room, followed by a deep emotionless voice, _"Hello Private, I want to play a game. Have you ever heard the expression, "Act your age"? Would you say it's something you do? I say not. You still watch cartoons and collect childish toys. It's time to break free from those things and finally grow up, wouldn't you agree?"_

More lights turned on revealing the rest of the room to Private. He was lying in the center of two railroads, crossing each other at a right angle. They weren't meant for a real train, but they still were larger than your regular toy train. The other ends of the barbed wires, tied to his limbs, were connected to four different locomotives, each "Driven" by a Lunacorn doll. The penguin gasped, "Princess Self-Respectra, why?" he asked and let a tear escape his eye.

"_In 60 seconds, your childish ways will become your downfall, unless of course, you are shown mercy, but that isn't up to you. Live or die? The choice will be made for you"_

**Rico:  
><strong>The weapons' expert woke up in a standing position. His neck was chaffing and he wanted to scratch it, but his flippers reached an obstruction, "What the?" he grunted in frustration and tried wiggling free, but whatever it was, it just caused him more pain.

After a minute or so, the lights finally turned on and he could see that he wasn't alone in the room, "Ms. Perky?" he asked surprised at the sight of his doll.

She was tied and hung from the ceiling. The rope reached down just to Rico's eye level so the two were face to face. Above her, was also a digital timer, but it wasn't showing anything at the moment.

The maniac wanted to break free to help his girlfriend. He looked down to see what was holding him in place. His head was peeking out of the neck opening of a male mannequin mold. The hole was just barely big enough to squeeze his head through. Inside the upper half of the chest cavity was a small wooden platform, which supported his body. His legs were kept in place by a pillory, which lacked the third hole for the head. There were also two tubes run from the ground into the shoulders of the mold.

Rico didn't waste a second on the contraption, his first goal was breaking free, fast. He tried regurgitating something to aid him in the escape. However, nothing exited his stomach. A growl from his abdomen confirmed his fear, he was empty… and hungry, but more importantly, empty. A frown appeared across his face as he looked into Perky's dead eyes and he let out a sigh.

Static caught his attention and ended the depression, _"Hello Ricardo, or as your friends call you, Rico," _began the all too familiar voice (to you, the readers, that is). _"Most of your life, you wasted alone, rejected by society. Due to your unique speech, you were the victim of prejudice, but all you ever wanted was companionship. You found it, eventually, in the form of a plastic doll."_

"Hey, leave 'er alone!" he grunted angrily.

"_Then, you found friends and formed a team, but you refused to let go of the doll, which could never return your feelings. Do you know why? Because you, like her, are empty inside. The device you have found yourself in will bring the two of you closer together. In 60 seconds, it will begin filling with molten plastic, encasing your body, turning you into what your companion is, a hollow, immobile doll. Live or die? You will see."_

**Kowalski:  
><strong>A green light turned on, on what he presumed to be the release mechanism, and the tall penguin was showered with the white granular substance. He instinctively shielded his eyes with his flippers and averted his gaze. He managed to divert most of the sugar that way and dared a peek to his side. The pile of the sweet substance was growing and he couldn't resist taking a taste of it.

Like a chameleon he stretched out his tongue and dipped it before allowing the sweet sensation to send shivers down his body, "Delightful," he said in bliss.

**Rico:  
><strong>The maniac heard a click beneath him and he looked down. The gears of a device, at the base of the mannequin mold, began turning and he could feel the heat emanating from it. The tubes run from it jerked slightly before a thick gray liquid began pouring out of their ends. It was flowing down the sides of the mold, all the way to the feet, which were filling up first.

The bird saw that it would take some time for it to reach him, but with the heat building up, it already felt like a sauna to him.

**Private:  
><strong>The young penguin began shaking in fear. He heard a beep and looked up, only to see a timer to his demise; 59 seconds. He gulped and sweat started running down his forehead. A whistle, from one of the four trains made him flinch.

Private began twisting and turning, but the wire only cut deeper with each movement. Before long, he subdued to the pain and stopped struggling.

Panting, he looked up, "20 seconds to go," he said, reading the timer.

**Kowalski:  
><strong>The scientist keep blocking the sugar out of his face, but the piles around him grew. It was too late when he realized that. He tried pushing them away, only to find out that they were too heavy to move. Kowalski tried using both flippers, but that only resulted in a face full of the sweet substance.

Some of it entered his lungs and it made him cough. "Oh Dubrunfaut, I promise I'll never *cough* again eat this addictive, delightful, diabetes-inducing, heavenly, number one cause of child o-PFFT!" he was quieted by a mouthful of sugar.

He managed to catch a glance of a small timer on the release mechanism. '17 seconds, I assume that's the time my captor presumes I have until I am buried underneath all this sucrose,' he thought.

**Rico:  
><strong>The liquid plastic was getting dangerously close to the wooden platform and he was getting really nervous right about now. He looked over to his girlfriend, who was still smiling like she usually does, but it wasn't calming like usual, it just made him shiver.

His gaze instead shifted to the timer above the doll; 13 seconds.

**Everyone:  
><strong>If you were told you're going to die, everything would change. You would look at the world in a whole new light. Some say your life flashes in front of your eyes, but what if you have Alzheimer's. Others tell of a light at the end of a hallway, but what if you're agoraphobic and prefer the hallway to the open space on the other end.

Atoms don't age, time doesn't stop, what if we're like water in the sink, once you enter the drain, there's no trace you ever existed.

Private, Kowalski and Rico all glanced at their death clocks: "3… 2… 1…"

Their hearts simultaneously skipped a beat, before everything went dark.

**Hope you liked it… one more chapter… and maybe an appendix… anyway, review!**


	12. Test Results

**12 – Test Results**

**A thank you to everyone, who took the time to write a review, or just comment on my work. So, here's the next chapter, I hope you enjoy it!**

Skipper stood in front of an open box on the wall. The door had a sticker on it, a yellow triangle with a black lightning in the middle. The penguin was was resting his good flipper on the largest switch inside the power box. Once he had flipped it, everything went dark. It was his only choice, if he wanted to save all of his teammates, assuming no trap was powered by its own battery. He clenched his beak as anger began building inside him.

He couldn't even go and check on his friends, because that would leave them in a difficult situation. He didn't want to fight them, not now, not ever. He slowly waddled away from the power box and simply stood there in the center of the room, trying to figure out what to do next.

* * *

><p>Private stopped shaking in fear. He slowly opened a single eye and was met with complete darkness. "Am I… d-dead?" he asked. He couldn't make out a single shape, but once he tried moving, he could still feel the barbed wire tied tightly around his feet and flippers. He gave up any attempt at fighting his restraints again and just let his head fall back.<p>

However, a screech broke the silence and his head sprang up to look what was causing the noise. Everything was still dark, but there was a lighter tone of it where he had seen the door earlier. "Who's there?" he asked and waited for a response.

"Private? Is that you?" he heard a feminine voice.

"MARLENE," he exclaimed in joy, "We came to rescue you!"

The otter rolled her eyes, despite the fact that she knew her gesture would go unnoticed. Being a mammal, her night vision was much better than that of a bird and she could make out most of the things in the room. The Lunacorns gave her shivers, though. "Private, what do you need me to do?" she asked.

"Well, if it's not too much trouble, could you untie me… please?"

She looked around a spotted a pair of cable cutters leaning against a wall. She took them and brought them over to Private. She had to put all her strength into operating the heavy tool, but the smallest penguin was soon free again.

"Thanks Marlene," he said with a smile as he rubbed his sore flippers. "Have you by any chance seen Kowalski or Rico anywhere?"

"I didn't see them, but the door I came trough had your name spelled on it so I guess the others are in their own rooms."

"Then there's no time to lose, LET'S GO!" the smaller bird ordered and slid out, followed by his otter friend.

* * *

><p>In the control room of the complex, an elderly looking penguin was slamming his flipper on his computer. "What the fuck?" he asked as all the monitors had suddenly gone dark. He pulled a flashlight from a drawer and brought a little light into the situation.<p>

There was dead silence surrounding him and it could only mean one thing, "That marshmallow broke the rules," he muttered to himself. He was inside a warehouse together with four other military trained penguins, at least one of which was craving for revenge. The rockhopper bit the tip of his flipper trying to forge a plan, but he could only come up with the most obvious one, "Cut and run, it is." He quickly grabbed any blueprint that was still in the room and stuffed it into a backpack, before walking towards the exit.

He had a wide grin while waddling. He already had a new "base of operation" in mind and was envisioning future traps. He was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn't notice the presence of another bird until it was too late.

Rockgut felt a sharp pressure against his neck, followed by the inability to breathe. Something hit the back of his knee (let's say he has them) and sent him to the ground. There, he continued twitching for some time until the lack of oxygen to his brain made him pass out.

Standing up from the unconscious rockhopper, was another penguin, which had one flipper in a makeshift splint. He let go of the piano wire he had been holding in his good fin. Due to his injury he was forced to hold both ends of the thin metal wire in just one flipper. The choke hold was out of the question and he didn't have any etorphine on him. It was risky, but he pulled it through.

Skipper was trying to catch his breath while glaring at the penguin underneath him. His heartbeat wouldn't go down, because the rage he was experiencing was sending vast amounts of adrenaline into his bloodstream.

"I could snap your neck right here and get it all over with," he said and felt his flippers trying to break free from his mind's hold. "But I won't… I can't do it to her… I'm not a killer."

* * *

><p>The penguin's eyelids were heavy and he felt something similar to a lump in his throat. He fought the exhaustion and opened his eyes; the gray ceiling looked familiar, but the entire place was the same, he could be anywhere inside the complex.<p>

"Hello Buck Rockgut." The older penguin looked to his right, only to see his protégé standing underneath the steel door frame.

The special agent wanted to jump up and teach the brat some respect, but he couldn't get up, his back wouldn't separate from the floor. He tried using his flippers to push himself up, but he couldn't separate them. He looked at his fins and notice the clear formation on the edges. It was dried glue, his flippers had been glued together.

"Sorry for your accommodations, but I had to make sure you wouldn't just jump up and kill me," explained Skipper as he waddled over to the rockhopper, who just continued shooting him a glare. "You said you were innocent, that you "wash your hands" from everything, but I say, they couldn't be dirtier. Your flippers are full of stain, Bucky, and like cranberry juice, these stains don't come out."

Skipper turned around to leave, when he heard the agent's voice, "You wanna hear a story, soldier?"

He knew he'd regret this, but he felt he owed Rockgut, if for nothing else, for taking him in. "Sure, I've got the time."

"There once lived a penguin, obsessed with making the world a better place, by disposing of scum such as a certain red rodent. This penguin tracked that rodent all over the world. In the Himalayas, however, the landscape decided to favor the rodent over the penguin. An avalanche caught the penguin off guard and in the heat of the moment, he hid inside a cave. Moments later, snowstorm came and began filling the cave with those darn white crystals. The penguin couldn't afford to sleep or else he would've been buried alive, he had to spend every waking moment shoveling the snow out of the cave. He felt his fat burn just to maintain his body temperature.

He had a radio with him, but there was no signal and he hadn't restocked, because he couldn't afford to lose the rodent's tracks. All those mistakes came to haunt him now and on the seventh day, he decided it was time to rest.

But… he was too strong, his body wouldn't let him die. The penguin didn't know how long he had been asleep, but in that moment he decided he had had enough. He leaped out of the cave and plummeted several hundred feet down the side of the mountain. As you can probably imagine, it wasn't a pretty landing, but bones mend and muscles heal, but the penguin's mind was never the same again, he was stronger and was willing to share his discovery with the world."

Skipper remained unimpressed, "You should've just written a book instead of… this."

"Laugh all you want, but as soon as the penguin recovered he went out into the world. The sight of animals wasting their lives, whilst he was out there risking his, made him angry. He wanted to put them into the same situation he was in and he quickly received the opportunity to do so.

While waddling through a forest he found a beaver. The rodent was careless and managed to get one of his hind paws caught underneath a fallen tree. The large rodent begged the penguin to save him. He explained that he had been stuck like that for hours now, but the penguin knew that that would be a problem.

Freeing the leg would result in crash syndrome. He had seen it before and knew it wasn't a nice way to go. I did the only right thing; I gave the beaver the tools to free himself. I gave him a hacksaw, because in the end, he could only save himself. I returned to that very site a few months later, only to find the skeleton remains of a paw."

Skipper let out a sigh, "You know… I just don't feel sorry for you. You're mad, that's all there is to it." He went for the exit.

"The world will be tested!"

Skipper reached the door.

"Death will not stop me!"

He turned around to shoot a last glare at the Rockhopper, "Game over, you son of a bitch!" he shouted and slammed the door shut. The automatic locking mechanism was activated and steel bars locked themselves in the steel doorframe.

He turned around and slid towards the exit. "It's all over," he said to himself, as the backdoor of the complex came into view. He left and allowed the cold air of freedom to fill his lungs.

"Skippah?" said a voice to his left. The penguin's blood froze, because he could recognize that British accent anywhere. "Skippah, is it really you?" it asked again, but the captain didn't dare turn around, he wanted to, but he couldn't. He made a step forward only to be stopped again, "Wait, don't go," it begged.

"I'm sorry Private, but I have to. I can't go back with you," he replied and glanced to the left. He saw the entire team, Kowalski, Rico and Private, as well as Marlene, standing there. Their expressions were a mixture of happiness and sadness, two opposite emotion of which the later prevailed.

Going against everything his mind was telling him to do, he turned to face them. They saw the poor state he was in, but it wasn't too bad, but they had seen him on worse days. "I have to disappear, I've done bad things and I need a head start before Antarctic command gives out a warrant for my arrest… but I won't struggle if you decide to take me in here and now," he said, extending his flippers and closing his eyes.

The trio of birds began waddling towards him and he waited for the sensation of cold steel around his fins, but instead, he received a warm embrace around his chest. Skipper looked down and he saw Private, hugging him. He looked back up and saw a smiling Kowalski and a chuckling Rico.

The little bird let go, "You can go, Skippah. We know it wasn't your fault," he said to his former leader.

The weapons expert only gave him a pat on the back, before stepping aside for the lieutenant. Kowalski gave Skipper a finshake and then saluted, "Sir, it's been an honor serving by your side." Rico and Private joined him in the sign of respect. "However, we cannot allow you to wander the face of this planet, a fugitive." He turned to the shortest bird, "Private, make a note, our former leader, Captain Skipper, has fallen in the line of duty. Due to the nature of his demise, his body could not be recovered."

Skipper smiled, "So after all this time, I never lost your respect?" he wiped a tear and looked at it, "Thanks. Thanks for everything you've done for me."

He looked pass his teammates and saw Marlene, still standing there, waiting for what's going to happen next. Private noticed the direction of his glance and stepped aside. He gave his former leader a nod and smile.

"And Kowalski, don't order around your superiors. You know very well Private's in charge," he said before waddling over to Marlene. He pulled her in a tight hug,"The nightmare's over," he whispered into her ear.

He pulled back and looked her in the eyes, but his smile soon disappeared, "But we can't be together… not here," he said before being interrupted by a pair of otter lips pressing against his beak.

The penguins watched the scene unfold only slightly surprised. Thankfully, Rico's stomach was empty so his "mushy love sensitivity" couldn't act up even if it tried.

The mammal and bird broke the sign of affection eventually. Skipper looked into Marlene's eyes once more, but he didn't say anything, he let go of her and waddled away.

They watched him until he finally disappeared from the horizon.

"We should head back," said Private, looking at the sky, "It's nearly morning." Everyone agreed and began their long walk home.

**So, this is basically it. As promised, I'm adding an appendix; nothing special, just Rockgut's last thoughts, a "How it should have happened" on one of the traps from the "Saw" series and an analysis of my traps. Don't worry about waiting for it, it's going to be put up tomorrow.**

**Hope you liked it and review!**


	13. Extra Credit

**13 – Extra Credit**

**I decided to exclude the "How It Should've Happened", because it destroys the mood of the chapter. Sorry everyone who was looking forward to it. **

* * *

><p><strong>Buck Rockgut<strong>

In the center of a small chamber, consisting of nothing more than six concrete walls and a steel door, there was a patch of black feather, glued to the floor, and bracing himself against one of the walls, was a penguin with a bare back. He was currently trying to catch his breath. He was bleeding slightly from spots where feathers had been plucked, but it was nothing serious.

He only needed a second to refocus before raising his head again and shooting another hate filled glare at the barely scratched wall in front of him. He let out a snarl and then went for it; the rockhopper began dragging his beak across the concrete. It was a Sisyphean task, trying to escape this way, but he tried it anyway.

Rockgut knew his beak was giving way faster than the wall so after an hour, he just turned around and slumped against the wall, allowing his body to slowly slide to the floor. He looked at his flippers; one was bare, while the other one had a double layer of feathers. He let out a sigh, but the moment of silence was broken immediately with a hysterical laugh.

The rockhopper pushed a flipper down his throat, which activated his gag reflex. A tear escaped his eye as a rather large item made its way up his esophagus. He spit it out and wiped his beak. The item in front of him was a tape recorder.

He hit the record button and spoke in his normal voice, _"Hello Skipper, if you are hearing this, I am long gone. You have tested me, but the game was rigged. Nonetheless, I am a good sport and accept my defeat. However, your error was believing that we were the only two players. My legacy will continue, that I have ensured. You think it's over just because I am dead. It's not over. The games have just begun."_

He hit the stop button and evil laughter filled his final resting place.

* * *

><p><strong>Trap analysis:<strong>

**1. Skipper's Test **– Well technically, if you look at it, Skipper never really got tested in the last story. Him joining Rockgut was the next level of the game. Amanda Young was subjected to more than one test so I guess you could draw some lines there.

**2. The Last Crossroad **– Jeff Denlon was tested for refusing to let go of his deceased son. The chains were an important element of "The Classroom Trap", whereas the table saw and conveyer belt, never appeared in the movies.

**3. Lead is the new Pink **– The method of execution is quite original, if I may say so, but it still has a "lookalike" in the seventh movie, "See no Evil". The problem here, which was also pointed out by Cudabear, was the fact that the trap itself becomes inescapable if the subject lacks the physical strength to carry it out.

**4. The Stomach for it **– Bombs were a common element of the 5th movie, but they also appeared in others, but I think this thing is more along the line of "The Venus Flytrap". The nitroglycerin was "the key" to his escape from the room and Ricky would have had to cut himself to retrieve it. It wasn't as extreme as the movie though. I doubt anyone would be able to remove his own eyeball. What Michael Marks should have done, is found a way to prevent the "Flytrap" from closing completely.

**5. Closing the Circuit **– This one, if you look closer, is a really interesting mix. Let's start with the reason for being tested; it's instilling fear, the same as the 4 racists in "The Horsepower Trap". The principle of using the very thing that the victim is already using to destroy his body, but in a larger dose, is similar to "The Razor Wire", but the method itself is closer to "The Acid Room". The blood sacrifice takes us back to "The 10 Pints of Blood" and the circuit completion part has its brother in "Bridge the Gap".

**6. The Madhouse **– Nothing like it in the movies and with good reason, it's not that stomach turning and it takes too long. I think the idea came to me from the first "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie. It's what Barbossa said about having a gun with a single bullet, while being stranded on an island. Also, has anybody heard the last thing I had Rockgut say before; "The mind is a terrible thing to lose." That quote just came to me, but I don't know if I actually created it myself or if I took it from somewhere.

**7. Snow White 's Bed **– A.k.a. Marlene's test. Self-sacrifice was never present in the movies, probably, because you would have to go against your own survival instinct for it. It goes against the message of the movies. We have "The Glass Coffin" here, but for a different function, and we have "The Cyanide Box". The means Skipper went through to escape his cage were quite extreme, but he had a powerful drive, like Strahm and Hoffman, who both escaped their inescapable traps. Beating a trap requires thinking outside the box.

**8. The Team's Test **– It began by leaving behind traps, for the world to see, next came the exploding puppet and lastly the separation. It wasn't so much their trap as it was Skipper's, but we can still look at them.

**8.1 Sugar Time **– Death by your own vice, already linked that part to "The Razor Wire" but the trap itself is just a remodeling of "The Pig Vat".

**8.2 Inner Child **– The method of execution is the same as in ""FEEL WHAT I FEEL" and the reason is the same as "Jeff's Test", the inability to let go of the past.

**8.3 The Mannequin **– A little more originality here. Rico would probably be burned alive by the molten plastic, "The Brazen Bull"/"The Furnace Trap", but the motive can be compared to "The Angel Trap", bringing one closer to his obsession.

**9. Rockgut's Test 1.0 **– I had the late Slovenian mountaineer, Tomaž Humar, in mind while coming up with it. Nothing special and I wasn't even planning on including it, but it was requested by AlwaysRemainMe. Hope you're happy.

**10. Leg or Life **– It doesn't get any simpler; lose a leg or your life. The utter genius through incredible simplicity, of the first movie will never be beat.

**11. Rockgut's Test 2.0 **– The same as Hoffman's ending. However, Rockgut's ending will not end the game.

**So there you have it. This chapter isn't so much a FanFic, just a finisher. There will be a sequel, but don't expect one before the beginning of summer, because I think I have to put down my pen for now. School demands it. I'm sorry, but it can't be helped. I'm just happy to finally have finished this.**

**If anyone has a title suggestion for the sequel, leave it in a review or PM me. You may review this chapter, but there isn't that much to comment on. So I believe this is goodbye… for now.**


End file.
